


The Faith and The Fool

by DoqWithAQ



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Betrayal, Blood and Violence, Depression, Emotional Baggage, Eventual Romance, Explicit Language, F/M, Fluff, For some reason people think I'm funny, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Joker's an asshole and a bisexual disaster, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, POV Multiple, Persona 5 Spoilers, Self-Harm, Slow Burn, Trust Issues, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Will be mostly canon up to a point, anguish, other tags to be added when I'm not lazy, persona 5 royal spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:34:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 43,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23919799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoqWithAQ/pseuds/DoqWithAQ
Summary: She's an honors student and an athlete.He's a transfer student with a record and a bad attitude.A retelling of The Faith Confidant.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Yoshizawa Kasumi, Kurusu Akira/Yoshizawa Kasumi, Persona 5 Protagonist/Yoshizawa Kasumi
Comments: 117
Kudos: 282





	1. First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been wanting to write this for a while, where I retold Joker’s story as an actual delinquent. I wanted to write this as a shumako fic, but it kinda fell off to the wayside with school and work going on. 
> 
> After current events freed up some time for me and I played P5R for a week and a half straight, I fell in love with Kasumi’s entire character arc and her character in general. I really wanted to write a shusumi fic, and then my friends bullied me into writing this, so here we are.

**4/12**.

They first met on the subway, purely by coincidence.

Ren Amamiya couldn’t help but find the constant shoulder-to-shoulder crowding claustrophobic, but all he could really do was bear it if he wanted to get to Shujin on time. The transfer student was rolling a five hundred yen coin along his fingers and running a hand through his messy raven hair, doing what he could to stave off boredom, when the ‘quiet’ whispers of his fellow students caught his ear. 

“Look, isn’t that her?” By the tone of her voice, that particular student sounded like she participated in the Shujin Rumor Mill. _Maybe she even has a few, albeit false, rumors about myself as well._

By contrast, the student next to her, and thus next to him, sounded like he was about to fall asleep standing up. “You mean that one with the red ribbon? Uh, I guess so?”

He’d only been going to this school for half a damn day, but Ren could feel the inanity comi—.

“She’s so thin…” _There it is._ “It’s not fair, I’ve got my hair in a ponytail too…”

Ren stopped rolling the coin in his fingers and started rolling his eyes, turning with an eyebrow raised incredulously. _What does—._

“Okay, and what’s that got to do with being thin?”

The transfer student could only smirk to himself as the train pulled in and more people got in line behind them. So maybe not every person at Shujin was an incorrigible, shallow asshole.

* * *

Kasumi Yoshizawa had to double check, but she was certain her station was approaching. In the corner of her eye, she could see a Shujin student standing next to her seat. She couldn’t help but sneak a few glances at him out of curiosity; He had an open blazer, the top two buttons of his shirt weren't buttoned, and a messy head of black hair that all but hid the top half of his face from the world. It looked like he was rolling a yen coin as he leaned against the train’s wall, and rather dexterously at that, while looking at nowhere in particular. Watching the coin roll so effortlessly brought to mind the rhythmic gymnastics that Kasumi trained for, and it brought a small smile to her face in spite of herself.

_Oh!_ She almost forgot what she was doing. Standing up out of her seat, Kasumi gestured to it for an elderly woman who was standing in front of her. “Please, take my seat. My station’s coming up.”

“Are you sure? Then…” The old woman seemed grateful, but it wasn’t meant to be. As soon as the gymnast stepped aside to let her sit down, a tired looking salaryman with a shocking amount of speed quickly sat down in the seat.

“Oh wow, what speed,” the gymnast wondered aloud. She heard a quiet snicker to her left; in the corner of her eye, Kasumi saw the other student grinning into his fist and looking away. The sight brought a small smile to her own face, but she had to focus on the task at hand, turning her attention back to the salaryman. “I mean - Excuse me, that seat was for this lady…”

The hope of getting the elderly woman a seat lasted all of half a second as the salaryman glanced up with dead-tired eyes, and then promptly passed out.

“Oh…” Kasumi couldn’t help but be a little disheartened. At least, until she heard a “Hey,” come from her left. She finally turned her full attention to the raven haired student, who was looking at her with his fist pressed against the side of his chin.

“Do you want me to ‘wake him up’?” The meaning was quite clear, especially as he cracked his knuckles against his chin.

Kasumi held up her hands, shaking her head vehemently. She certainly didn’t want this to turn into a physical confrontation! “No no, it’s alright! I can understand _his_ position as well.” That seemed to placate the other student, who shrugged and went back to leaning against the wall and rolling that five hundred yen coin (she finally caught a glimpse of it!) along his fingers. 

Turning to the old woman, the athlete couldn’t help but apologize. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of any help…” 

“Oh, it’s alright, dearie. Don’t you worry.” The elderly woman seemed unperturbed about the situation, a soft, understanding smile upon her face, one that helped bring a smile back to Kasumi.

“Please allow me to carry your luggage, at least.”

“Thank you! Ain’t it heavy, though?”

Kasumi shook her head, lifting the luggage into one hand with ease. “Not at all! I train plenty.” As she helped the old woman with her luggage, Kasumi couldn’t help but glance over at the raven haired boy out of the corner of her eye. 

He wasn’t looking at her, but there was a smirk playing on his lips.

* * *

Ren finally had some room to breathe after being cramped up against a wall and a pole, breathing a deep sigh through his nose, making his way to school when he heard a quiet ‘ _tap tap tap_ ’ of someone jogging up to him from behind. The transfer student slowed his pace until they had caught up, his head turned slightly so he could see who it might be.

“Pardon me.” As it turned out, it was the red-headed girl with the ribbon in her hair who thought she was being stealthy while glancing at him on the train. He turned around fully to face her, and she continued. “Thank you so much for earlier,” she said as she bowed slightly, a smile on her face. 

_Well, this is a surprise_. Ren was used to people glaring at him or giving him the cold shoulder, but a ‘thank you’? Completely foreign to him. “Thank you? For what?” He said as he tilted his head along with the question, an eyebrow raised quizzically.

“For speaking up when I offered my seat on the train.” To that, the second year only gave a noncommittal shrug, but the redhead kept going. “You’re a second-year at Shujin Academy, correct? I’m a first-year there myself.”

“I can tell,” was all the response Ren gave as he flicked the ‘two’ pin on his blazer. 

“Oh! Yes, well, thanking you totally slipped my mind back on the train, and I didn’t want to be rude to my senpai.” The first year smiled up at him, the earnestness catching Ren off guard a bit, at least until she bowed again. “Please excuse me.”

As she walked past him, Ren followed her with his gaze, until his feet caught up with what his head was thinking.

“Hey. First year.”

That stopped the redhead, and she turned to face him again as he walked up to her.

“Ye— Ah!” She was in the middle of her reply, until she felt him tap her on the forehead with his index and middle fingers. The first year’s hand went up to her forehead and she pouted up at Ren in shock.

The prelude to his reply was a grin, his hand having drawn back but still pointing those two fingers at her. 

“Don’t call me ‘ _senpai_.’”

And with that, the transfer student walked past her and made his way to the academy, but not before he heard a quiet “Rude…” behind him, a chuckle leaving his lips.

He might not be shallow, but Ren was certainly an _incorrigible asshole._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, when I played P5R, I took every opportunity I could to be a complete /jackass/ (minus the 'harem' bit, cause there are lines that shouldn't be crossed), and I definitely hope that comes across here.
> 
> The mature rating will come into play /eventually/. Hopefully. Maybe. We'll see.
> 
> Also, something something no beta reading something something coldpost something something we die like men.
> 
> This is my first fic please don't hurt im baby


	2. Guidance Office

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The athlete and the delinquent meet again. 
> 
> One gives the other a warning.

**4/18.**

The second time they met was in front of the faculty guidance office.

As per usual, Ren was staring out the window, paying attention to nothing in particular, but deep into his thoughts. He thought about how he was going to pay for new equipment for himself and his...teammates? Friends? What were they? Ann and Ryuji were certainly good people and were friendly enough with him in spite of how much of an ass he was. 

He winced at the memory of him and Ryuji meeting up to try and get into Kamoshida’s Palace...Ren planned to apologize for saying ‘ _Who are you?_ ’ to him, especially after seeing the hurt look in his eyes. He’d make it up to Ryuji. Eventually. Likely with food.

Ren’s attention, or lack of, only broke when Kawakami sharply slapped a rolled up practice book onto his desk. The transfer student jolted and finally turned his attention to the homeroom teacher who had been calling him for a full minute.

“A-HEM. Now that I have your attention, Amamiya-kun, a word with you please?”

Thankfully for Ren, Morgana hadn’t yet poked his furry head out of his bag yet, so all he had to do was follow the teacher and do his best to ignore the snickers from his fellow classmates.

* * *

Kasumi followed her teachers out of the guidance office with Mr. Kamoshida leading the way, head tilted down to look at the ground, her thoughts on the discussion they just had. When Mr. Kamoshida stopped, she looked up to find the reason.

Her eyebrows furrowed, a small frown forming on her face when she saw him. That rude boy from the train.

Kasumi recalled his fingers poking her forehead, remembering the annoyance she felt in that moment. Kasumi kept her eyes on the boy, watching what he was doing, only half paying attention to what Mr. Kamoshida was saying.

The raven haired second year had most of his attention on Mr. Kamoshida. _He's definitely glaring at the physical education teacher, but for what reason would he have for that? Did something happen between the two of them?_ Then his gaze shifted over to the counselor behind her, his expression indifferent. _Alright, so nothing behind them, but what about—_

His attention slid over to her, and their eyes met. For a second, it actually seemed like his face relaxed, the glare slipping away into something softer. _What is that look on his face? Worry?_

Then the boy’s lips curled back into that same cocky grin he had when he tapped her on the forehead, and Kasumi thoughts about the look on his face fled from her as she felt her frown deepen and annoyance with him rise.

And as Mr. Kamoshida was talking, the gymnast got an idea. One that made Kasumi giddy to think about, but she had to stay in control for it to work.

“...I appreciate the support.” Mr. Kamoshida had just finished thanking Miss Kawakami for her help, and that’s when Kasumi struck.

She bowed slightly at the hips in the boy’s direction and said, “Thank you again for your help on the train, _senpai._ ” Out of her peripheral, Kasumi could see the jerk’s hand twitch, and knew she struck a nerve, a smile playing on her lips as she rose back up.

They could all hear the second year suck a breath in through his teeth before he spoke. “That happened six days ago, first year. I would’ve thought you’d have forgotten it by now.” Oh he was annoyed, and Kasumi’s self satisfied smirk only widened at that.

However, Mr. Kamoshida’s voice was concerned when he spoke up. “You know this guy, Yoshizawa?” 

“Oh! Yes, he lent me a helping hand with something before.” At least that much was true, the raven haired boy wasn’t a complete jerk. 

“I recommend you steer clear of the likes of him if you have any consideration for your future as an honors student.” The physical education teacher’s tone caught Kasumi’s attention, her head turning to him. “Remember the discussion we just had? There are a number of students in this school you shouldn’t get involved with.” With a finger, the teacher pointed right at the black haired second year. “This one’s at the top of that list.”

It took her a moment to process, but when she did, a gasp left Kasumi’s lips as she turned her eyes back to the second year, his open blazer and bad attitude suddenly making sense. “Oh!...The delinquent transfer student…?” Well...that would explain why he’s so rude, at least.

“In the flesh,” the transfer student spoke up, that cocky grin still on his face as he looked at Kasumi. “You should be careful around me, Yoshizawa. I’m nothing but trouble.” That’s when he turned to face Mr. Kamoshida. “And, as for my rebuttal…” The student made a show of rummaging through his pockets as though he were looking for something. “Let me just find it real - ah, there it is.” And when the hands came out, they were both flipping Mr. Kamoshida the bird.

Kasumi’s jaw dropped, and she’s almost certain everyone else’s did too. She could see Miss Kawakami’s shocked expression in the corner of her eye.

_Okay, he's so much more rude than I was expecting. Like a cat that stares at it's owner while pushing a glass off of the table._

Thankfully, it was Miss Kawakami who recovered first, her hand shooting out and forcing the second year to lower at least one of his hands. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I need to use the guidance office, please.” The tone of her voice seemed to reach the delinquent, because he put both hands in his pockets, continuing to glower at Mr. Kamoshida.

Mr. Kamoshida replied to the scowl with a sneer of his own. “This is what I’m talking about, Yoshizawa. You should stay away from him, for your own sake.” With a slow exhale, he turned back to the gymnast. “Anyways, we should be going too - don’t want to get in the way of guiding this delinquent and all.” Mr. Kamoshida's voice practically dripped with venom as he walked past Miss Kawakami and the delinquent.

As the gym teacher and counselor made their way past the second year and Miss Kawakami, Kasumi could only bow to the raven haired boy, her face undoubtedly betraying her uncertainty. “Please, excuse us.” She didn’t bother with the ‘senpai’ part this time.

But as she was starting to walk past him, the delinquent pulled his hand out of his pocket, and the gymnast flinched, expecting him to poke her forehead again. Instead, he gently placed his hand on her shoulder to stop her and leaned in. _What is he—?_

“Be careful around Kamoshida. Stay away from him if you can help it.” His voice was a whisper, his tone was grave, and before Kasumi could think to ask, he was already walking into the guidance office.

_...What did he mean by that?_

* * *

Ren was sitting across from Kawakami, who was sitting with her head in her hands and groaning to herself. The boy couldn’t help but find the situation hilarious, that grin never leaving his lips, even as his homeroom teacher lifted her head up to scold him.

“I was going to ask if something happened between you and Mr. Kamoshida, but clearly something has!” His teacher already seemed tired of the situation and the day in general, and it was only early morning. “What do you have to say for yourself, Amamiya-kun?”

His reaction was to place a hand over his chest in mock shock. “Something? Between me and Mr. Kamoshida?” The ‘mister’ was practically spat out, like the word was covered in bile. “Never, Miss Kawakami! I’d never do such a thing as to -”

“ _Stop._ ” 

The tone of her voice stopped Ren in his tracks like a train hitting the brakes. His hand fell into his lap, the grin vanished from his face, and only replied with a “Yes, ma’am.”

Kawakami took a moment to collect herself, then looked Ren over a raised eyebrow. “I ask because there was that exchange just now...but that’s not all.” She paused, likely to let the statement sink in, before she continued. “Mr. Kamoshida gave me a lecture this morning, and your name came up. Something about the dangers of a lack of supervision…” She let out a sigh, deflating somewhat. “And clearly I can see what he means...listen, I don’t mean to pry, but...just make sure you don’t go causing more trouble than you already have, okay?”

When all she got was a nonchalant shrug, the homeroom teacher deflated even further, sighing quietly as she rested her chin on her hand, looking away. Ren could see the tired It took a moment before Kawakami remembered something. “Oh, and one more thing.”

Ren was beginning to lose focus, the tiredness catching up with him. Hearing Kawakami speak up, however, forced him to pay attention so as to not have a repeat from earlier.

“That girl outside the office, Yoshizawa-san - I noticed you stopped before you followed me inside. You didn’t make a pass at her, did you?”

_Would I actually hit on her?_

He took a minute to think about Yoshizawa; Red hair, red ribbon, red eyes, cute face, small but athletic frame, cute smile...

_...Eh. Maybe? I think I'd have to get to know her first._

The transfer student raised his brow until it disappeared beneath his mop of hair, leaning back and thinking for a second. “Well...she does have a cute ribbon,” Ren replied with a smirk.

His teacher’s response was an unimpressed “...Uh huh.” Tapping on the table in thought, Kawakami continued with her train of thought. “Mr. Kamoshida has a real close eye on you…Apparently you’ve been getting involved with Sakamoto-kun...And you seem acquainted with Yoshizawa-san as well…” With a shrug of her shoulders, Kawakami let out a quiet laugh. “Maybe you're just naturally drawn to athletes?”

“Don’t kinkshame me.”

For the second time that day, Kawakami's jaw dropped as she stared at Ren. Then she promptly dropped her head into her hands and groaned, her exasperation echoing off the walls of the small office. The teacher gestured to the door, shaking her head in one hand. “That’s all I wanted to discuss...You’re free to go...Get out, please...” Kawakami slowly buried her head into her arms on the table, seemingly wanting to block out the world after what she just heard.

With a quiet, cocky laugh, Ren got out of his seat, snatched up his school bag and walked out the guidance room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was definitely a fun chapter to write. Anyone else wanted to flip off Kamo-shithead? I'm sure I'm not alone.
> 
> That kinkshame bit? My brother came up with it as we were playing the game and it's been stuck in my head since.
> 
> Once again, no beta reading we die like men.


	3. Therapy Sessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new faculty member joins Shujin Academy.
> 
> The delinquent acts like a jerk. The athlete responds appropriately.

**5/13.**

The third time they met was after the assembly.

It’d been less than two weeks since Suguru Kamoshida had his Change of Heart and subsequent arrest. And in those less-than-two weeks, it seemed the school had received a lot of flak from both the media and parents of the students who were abused by the physical education teacher. And as those days passed by, Principal Kobayakawa - or as everyone called him, Principal Egg - responded by calling together a student assembly to ‘address’ the problem.

To Ren, it was likely that principal Egg just wanted to soothe the anxieties of the student body as well as their parents. With what? He wasn’t sure, but he doubted it'd be anything good or meaningful. So, here they all were, in the auditorium, likely about to listen to a bunch of bullshit. Oh well.

With a ‘tap tap’ onto the microphone, the principal began the assembly...And Ren could already feel himself falling asleep.

“Ever since that specific...incident...many of you have voiced concerns that I could not bear to ignore.”

_Oh yes, the Egg couldn’t ignore them because if he did so, he’d be liable to lose out on his and the school’s reputation, and therefore, money._ Ren flicked his eyes over at Ann, who was standing to his left, just to see if she was alright. Her hand was clenched white, jaw clenched tight, eyes narrowed to slits...she definitely wasn’t happy to hear it just be called an ‘incident.’

“We believe the mental health of our student body is absolutely vital, so we have acquired the services of a therapist.”

_One hundred percent bullshit, because if he actually cared about the student body’s mental health, then the abuses under Kamoshida wouldn’t have fucking happened._ _What kind of bullshit 'therapist' are they about to try and shove down our throats?_

With a gesture to the side, principal Egg motioned for someone to join him. “The floor is yours, Doctor.”

Ren crossed his arms, watching as the therapist walked onto stage. Messy brown hair, square glasses, handsome face, five o'clock shadow, lab coat, white shirt, blue checkered tie, beige pants, and...and slippers? _Is this guy actually a doctor?_ The therapist made it to the microphone, and the audience of students practically erupted into whispers. Most of the comments consisted of how attractive the doctor was. 

The students around Ren quieted down when the therapist cleared his throat, the man giving them all an easy-going smile. “It’s nice to meet you all.”

One of the girls in front of Ren commented on how sexy the doctor’s voice is, her voice a tad louder than what would be acceptable for gossip. _Are all these people really so damn shallow?...Granted, he is easy on the eyes and ears…_

“My name is—,” Was all he got to say because of course the microphone chose that moment to cut out, leaving the doctor fiddling with the microphone for a bit until he got it working again. “My name is Takuto Maruki. Thank you all for welcoming me to your school.” With that, Maruki bowed - or attempted to at least. The microphone was still there, and with a loud ‘thud’ the therapist bowed right into it, clutching his forehead in pain afterwards.

Ren let out a few quiet chuckles, a wide grin on his face. _Maybe this guy wouldn’t be so bad? He’s already leagues better than Kamoshida, at any rate._

Once Maruki had recovered, still rubbing his forehead, he continued his introductory speech. “No need to be formal with me, though. I’m just here to counsel anyone who’s interested.” Taking a look around, the doctor had a thoughtful expression. “You can even call me Doc, if that would help you feel more comfortable. Any assistance you need, I’ll be — Oh…Well, I guess I’m not really any good for helping with money problems…”

That was when Principal Egg had to step in, with a hand on Maruki’s shoulder to lead him away from the mic. “Thank you, Dr. Maruki.” 

From there, it was mostly boring announcements that Ren had to struggle to stay awake through. At this rate, he might actually fall asleep on his feet…

* * *

After the assembly, Kasumi managed to have a spring in her step as she walked through the halls of the academy. After all, her own therapist would be the school’s therapist, too! _It’ll be an excellent opportunity for those who need therapy or even just guidance._ It made her happy to think of all the people who could benefit from Maruki’s help!

Something, or rather someone, caught her eye as Kasumi was lost in her thoughts. A messy head of raven hair who the other students seemed to be avoiding, like a parting of the Red Sea. The raven-haired student looked to be alone for the moment. The memory of him tapping her on the forehead returned and a pout appeared on Kasumi’s lips. That pout remained until an idea crossed her mind, one that had her grinning as mischievously as he would as she began to sneak up on the ‘delinquent’.

Winding her way through the crowd, the gymnast did her best to follow the raven-haired student. It looked like he was heading out into the courtyard between the two buildings. She could catch him before then if she just —

It was then that the boy she was tailing spun on his heel and she felt those two fingers tap her on the forehead again.

Naturally, the instinctual reaction she had was to squeak and flinch back. Kasumi rubbed her forehead, then looked up at the transfer student in front of her with a scowl.

Of course, what she saw was that delinquent looking down at her with that same infuriating, cocky grin of his. He said, “Good attempt,” as his only response, and oh boy how it frustrated her to no end.

“How did you see me?” she demanded from him. She had to know, if only so she could do better in the future. She has to get better. She has to be better.

The whispers that had already started around the transfer student had practically exploded, thundering in her ears. She heard everyone wondering how they knew each other, why she was talking to him, how he was a prick for treating her like —

“Well that’s easy to answer.” The raven-haired student still had that smug grin on his face as he shrugged. “I’ve got eyes on the back of my head.” The matter-of-fact way he said made it sound almost believable.

Kasumi’s only response was a scowl and a frustrated glare.

“Okay, fine. I can see three hundred and sixty degrees around myself; I don’t have a blind spot.”

The gymnast crossed her arms, the scowl deepening on her face.

The raven haired delinquent brought a hand up to the back of his neck, rubbing it a bit as though he were embarrassed. “Alright, alright...” _He actually looks serious this time. Was he really going to—_ “I have a magical sense that I call the Third Eye and with it, I can feel the auras of people around me, even if they’re coming up behind—.” Kasumi stamped her foot onto the ground, her hands balled into fists as she exclaimed, “Stop messing with me, you jerk!” She glared up at said jerk, staring daggers at him.

And of course his response was to laugh; Or at least to chuckle, as he held a hand over his mouth. 

In that moment, Kasumi wanted to back everything nice she ever thought or said about this awful jerk of a human —

Before she could finish that thought, the raven-haired student turned his torso away from her, pointing at the door leading outside. Her gaze followed his finger to door, then to him and then back to the door.

“Y’know, that glass is pretty reflective.”

That’s when it clicked for Kasumi; He just saw her in the reflection in the window. Duh. She groaned into her hands, letting out a heavy sigh through her nose as the anger dissipated.

But then the frustration welled up again, especially when she heard the transfer student snicker under his breath. Kasumi glared up at him through her fingers. “Well, why didn’t you just say that instead of giving me a bunch of nonsense?” Kasumi mumbled from underneath her hands.

“Easy, two reasons: One, you’re just so much fun to tease.” His grin only widened as Kasumi’s hands flinched and her gaze narrowed. “And two…” Here, for the first time since this whole debacle started, the raven haired boy frowned down at Kasumi. “You keep calling me senpai.” 

Kasumi crossed her arms over her chest and frowned up at the boy before her when a thought crossed her mind. The frown lessened, and her arms uncrossed as she dwelt on the thought some more, finally looking back up Senpai. His response was a slightly crooked eyebrow and a tilt of the head.

“You keep acting like a jerk.”

He replied with that omnipresent grin of his. “Guilty as charged.”

"But why?” She had to get on her tiptoes to do it, but Kasumi stepped forward and got up in Senpai’s face. “Why be so rude all the time? What do you have to gain from it?"

That caught him off guard, the raven-haired student taken aback by the questions and by Kasumi’s proximity. He blinked rapidly, clearly trying to find the words. Senpai seemed to have found them when he smirked down at her. "Easy, I'm just naturally inclined to being an incorrigible asshole."

Unfortunately for his lie, Kasumi could see that it didn't quite reach his body language. 

“You say that, and yet...” Kasumi paused, looking down for a moment to gather herself. When she looked back up, the raven haired boy was giving her an inquisitive look, like he was trying to figure out where this was going. “When we met last month, in front of the guidance office…you told me to stay away from—.” Once again, the redhead felt a pair of fingers press against her forehead. But rather than the mischievous tap that it was the last two times, this was more of a gentle press to get her attention.

“This conversation,” he started, the mirth from his smile receding as he withdrew his hand, “should be saved for when we’re not surrounded by the Shujin Peanut Gallery.” The forceful way he said it had the students who were loitering around the two of them to listen in on the conversation jolt to attention, scattering to get away from the rumored-to-be violent delinquent transfer student. It even had Kasumi flinch a bit...she hadn’t heard him talk like that before...

With a quiet, dark laugh, the messy haired boy turned his attention back to Kasumi, jerking his head for her to follow him as he walked toward the stairs. “C’mon, Yoshizawa. I got somewhere we won’t be eavesdropped on.”

* * *

No doubt Ren and Yoshizawa were drawing stares from the other students as the two of them made their way up the stairs, walking through the halls of the academy until they finally reached their destination: the roof of the school.

Checking over his shoulder, Ren saw that the redhead seemed to be a little anxious about being here. She drew her arms in and checked over her shoulder to see if anyone was following them. Not like it mattered to him, regardless. He knew the teachers would definitely hear about it soon enough. It was fine, Ren knew the two of them only needed a few minutes anyways.

And then he caught her eye and Ren gave what he hoped was a reassuring smirk, then turned his attention to what was assuredly a locked door. When he tried it and it wouldn’t budge, Yoshizawa gave a huff and a shrug.

“Well, since it’s locked, I suppose we’ll just have to talk right here, right?”

“Nope,” was all the response Ren gave to the honor student before reaching into his shoulder bag, gently pushing the hidden Morgana over to one side as the delinquent grabbed what he was looking for: a small, zippered tool kit. With practiced ease, Ren unzipped and opened it, revealing the lockpick set and pulled out the tension wrench, only sparing a glance at the door’s lock before pulling out the rake pick.

Holding the tools in one hand, the delinquent held out the lockpick kit to Yoshizawa, who looked at him with disbelief clearly written on her face.

“Yoshizawa, could you hold this for me please?” Without waiting for a reply, Ren passed the kit to her, the honor student jolting and grasping the toolkit, and Ren turned his attention to the lock. Sliding the thinner end of the wrench into the bottom of the lock and the rake into the top portion, the delinquent set to work on the—.

“Senpai!” The title was whisper-yelled at him, snatching Ren’s attention from the lock and causing him to grumble, though his hands kept moving. He cocked a questioning eyebrow at the redhead.

“What?” The question was honest, but Ren had a feeling he knew what the answer was. He was, however, still curious about what Yoshizawa had to say.

With another glance over her shoulder to check the stairway, Yoshizawa practically hissed at Ren. “What are you doing? This is trespassing!”

All he gave was a shrug, feeling the ‘click’ in the lock. Ren turned the lock to the opened position, then retrieved the wrench and rake from inside. “Opening the door, what about it?” With his free hand, Ren took the tool kit from Yoshizawa, who surprisingly gave it back without protest, placing the wrench and rake back in their places before zipping up the kit and placing it back into his bag. With a flourish, he opened the door to the roof and gestured to Yoshizawa to go before him. “Ladies first."

Yoshizawa glared between him and the open door. She looked like she had something to say as she scowled at Ren, but with a huff chose to walk through the door instead, sparing one more nervous glance down the stairs as she did.

* * *

Well, there’s a certain amount of anxiety one feels when they trespass where they shouldn’t. Doubly so when you do it with someone who has a bad reputation in the school. Kasumi had to take a bit to center herself, steady her breathing, but all she could hear were the rumors that were whispered about the delinquent transfer student. That he carried a knife on him, that he’d punch anyone who’d look at him wrong, that he worked for a yakuza clan, that he’s murdered before...the rumors were as wild and endless as the student body’s imagination. As much as she intellectually knew that they likely weren’t true, there was that small part of Kasumi that thought, _“But what if..?”_

Turning back to look at Amamiya-senpai, she saw that he was turning the door’s knob back and forth repeatedly. Once he seemed satisfied, he stepped away from the door, having propped it open with the bolt. Apparently, the question was visible on Kasumi’s face, because the raven-haired boy looked at her and jabbed a thumb at the door. “Had to make sure the lock wasn’t broken. Man, I hate masterkeys.”

“What do you mean, broken?” Kasumi hissed through her teeth as loud as she dared, even though she knew no one was likely to hear them. This certainly, definitely, and absolutely did not help her anxiety.

All the transfer student did was close his eyes and shrug nonchalantly. “Relax, I just said it isn’t. No big deal.” 

Balling her fists again at his blatant disregard for her anxiety, Kasumi was about to open her mouth to tell him off when he started walking towards her, continuing his own statement, “And if you get in trouble with the teacher, tell them I forced you to follow me up here - I mean, it wouldn’t be wrong...not really.”

Kasumi immediately deflated. She was confused. Puzzled. Baffled at how this seemingly ‘terrible’ person, this jerk, this delinquent, could just say he’d take the fall for something when she helped him with breaking onto the rooftop. All she did was hold the kit, but still...especially after how he acted earlier. Her confusion was likely written plain as day across her face, because Senpai took one look at her and asked, “What?” in such an honest tone that Kasumi almost laughed.

No, wait, she was actually laughing. Or giggling, at the very least, and had to look away to try and get control of herself. She could hear him walking closer to her, but she was only somewhat in control, the occasional giggle escaping her lips.

“What’s so funny, Yoshizawa?” He was chuckling a bit, so that was at least a good sign. The gymnast had to cough to stop herself from going into another giggle fit.

With an inhale and an exhale, Kasumi got herself under enough control to finally say to him. “You know, Senpai,” she started, and saw the corner of his lip twitch downwards. “I really don’t think you’re an actual delinquent, or even a jerk, at all.”

There was silence for a second.

Two seconds.

Then—

“What?!” He spluttered, his forehead wrinkling in frustration. That, coupled with the crack in Senpai’s voice had Kasumi fall prey to another fit of laughter. The transfer student was rubbing the back of his neck, mouth opening and closing as he was trying to find the words to respond to her with, and it only made her laugh harder, tears pricking at her eyes.

That voice in the back of Kasumi’s mind, the one that asked _'What if'_ regarding the transfer student and the rumors that surrounded him went silent from that point onward.

“A-Alright, first off, I just picked the door to the roof and practically forced you to follow me up here.”

So he was starting with that? The gymnast did her best to calm herself, the occasional giggle escaping her lips. “You gave me the choice to follow you, and I did. Not to mention, you just said that you’d take the fall if I got into trouble. Doesn’t sound very delinquent-y or jerk-ish to me.”

He pursed his lips together, clearly trying to find another retort, and seemed to light up when he found one. “I offered to beat that guy up on the train last month, remember?”

“Mm...no, I don’t think you would have gone that far—.”

“Oh, because you know me so well?” The delinquent countered.

“Well, I don’t think you would have troubled yourself that much on a crowded train, would you?”

“That’s—.”

“And…” Kasumi paused, thinking how to word her next thoughts. “You may have given a teacher a double bird—,” She hears a quiet snicker from the boy and smiles in response. “But you also told me to avoid that very same teacher. And I thought, ‘Well, he wouldn’t tell me that for nothing.’ So, I avoided going to him for help. He taught volleyball and I’m in gymnastics anyways, so it wasn’t hard to avoid him.” Her smile fell as she continued, looking down at her feet and fidgeting with her hands. “But...if you hadn’t...if you hadn’t, I probably would have gone to Kamoshida for guidance. And if I did that, then what happened to Suzui—” Before she could get the words out, Kasumi heard a loud snap right next to her ear and was brought back into the moment. She looked back up and saw that Senpai's hand was by her temple, and was about to snap again.

Once he had noticed that she stopped, Amamiya-senpai let his hand drop back to his side and gave her a look of understanding. “Hey. Don’t go down rabbit holes like that. Thinking about what-ifs doesn't help with anything.” 

She couldn't help but nod solemnly, her thoughts settling. He was right, putting thought into what could have happened would only cause her more needless anxiety. The what-if scenario didn’t happen, so there’s no further need to worry about it. Kasumi’s gaze lingered on the boy, and her own cocky smirk appeared.

“You know, Senpai—” She saw the corner of his lip twitch. “That’s really not the attitude of a delinquent, now is it?”

His lips pursed tightly, and when his hand rose back up with his index and middle held up that was the moment that Kasumi knew she goofed. “Now you’re just asking for me to bully you at this point.” Before she could protest Senpai let out a quiet sigh, then side eyed the door to the roof and raised his voice as he spoke, “But I suppose I shouldn’t do that in the presence of school faculty, now should I?”

Kasumi turned her gaze to the door as it opened and saw a familiar face in the doorway. “Oh, Dr. Maruki!”

The doctor walked in through the door, one hand scratching the back of his neck as he looked between the two students on the roof. “You two...do know that the school roof is off limits, right?”

Before Kasumi could give a reply, the transfer student stood in front of her, placing himself between her and Dr. Maruki. “Before anything, Doc, lemme just clarify that I was the one who brought her up here in the first place—.”

“Woah, easy there Amamiya-san.” The doctor held up his hands and shook his head. “I’m not here to get you in trouble, your friends just let me know where I was likely to find you.” Dr. Maruki made his way over to the two of them, and the transfer student - or rather, Amamiya-senpai, as Kasumi had just learned - tensed slightly.

Kasumi gently pat Amamyia-senpai’s shoulder. The act succeeded in catching his attention, the boy turning his head slightly so he could look at her.

“Senpai,” she started, noticing the twitch in the delinquent’s body and doing her best to repress the grin, “Dr. Maruki was - or rather, is, my therapist. I’ve been seeing him before he or I came to Shujin.”

While she had his attention before, Kasumi had Amamiya-senpai’s focus now, the raven haired boy turning to face her. “No shit, really?” He turned his head for a moment to look at the doctor again, then back to Kasumi. “I suppose he’s here for me, though.” Senpai must have clearly read her confused expression, because he explained further, “The school likely wants me to go to him for therapy because of my previous, ah, ’incident’ with Kamoshida. And I doubt I really have a choice in the matter, either.” The delinquent turned back to the therapist, his back to Kasumi. “How am I doing so far, Doc?”

Dr. Maruki scratched the back of his neck again, chuckling quietly. “Correct on all accounts, Amamiya-san. I see your friends weren’t exaggerating when they said you were smart enough to figure it out before I told you.”

With his theories proven true, Amamiya-senpai turned back to Kasumi with that familiar, self-satisfied grin on his face again. “Well, you’re the one who knows him, Yoshizawa. Sell me on him. Convince me he’s worth my time.” 

“Well,” Kasumi started, feeling the warm smile coming to her face as she thought about how Dr. Maruki helped her. “In my personal experience, Dr. Maruki is a wonderful counselor and therapist. I’m sure if there are any problems you have, you could go to him for help!”

“Y-Yoshizawa-san, don’t go overselling me, I’m really nothing special…” The therapist let out a quiet sigh, turning his gaze to Amamiya-senpai. “I do have free snacks in my office, if that’ll help convince you? All you can eat!...Would be pretty nice, but there’s still plenty to be had.” Dr. Maruki looked at the ground in thought for a moment. “I know that asking you to be open with a complete stranger like myself is asking a lot. And making the sessions mandatory wouldn’t do you any good either, though...Maybe I could turn it into a worthwhile experience...?” With a hum, the doctor thought for a moment, snapping his fingers soon after. “I know! If you attend my counseling sessions, I’ll teach you different ways to improve your mental acuity. Like, ways to hone your concentration before exams, or not getting nervous on dates.” Dr. Maruki looked at Amamiya-senpai with a self-satisfied grin on his face. “How’s that sound?”

It took a few seconds, but the delinquent was chuckling quietly and shaking his head. “You just told Yoshizawa not to oversell you, and then you go and do it yourself?” Amamiya-senpai glanced over at Kasumi, then began walking towards the door back into the school. “Well, I trust Yoshizawa’s judgement. She’s too naive to lie to me anyways.” With that said, the delinquent reached out to Dr. Maruki as he passed the man, snatching the doctor’s tie and tugging him along, causing Maruki to stumble into step with him. “C’mon, Doc. Lets talk more about those snacks.” 

That’s the second time Amamiya-senpai’s made Kasumi’s jaw drop, and the first time he’s made Maruki’s. As the doctor sputtered and walked along with the raven-haired student, he turned to look at Kasumi and mouthed the words, "Is he always like this?" The gymnast could only give the most tired expression she could muster as she nodded and shrugged at Dr. Maruki.

When she was finally left alone on the roof, Kasumi let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding, shaking her head slightly. “Senpai is going to drive me, and everyone else, crazy. I swear...” Walking towards the roof door, the gymnast held her hand out to open the door, then stopped. She ran her hand along the metal of the door, noticing the fogged glass, her brows furrowing.

_How...how did Senpai know Dr. Maruki was there?_


	4. Cleanup Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They meet again during a school trip.
> 
> A deal between the two is made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for taking so long on this. Kinda just been picking at it for the past month.
> 
> I've had a friend of mine that's actually a writer read over the chapters thus far and gave me advice on how to edit some of the writing. So I've gone back and edited bits and pieces of all the previous chapters. Here's hoping they all flow better and aren't nearly as jarring.

**5/30**.

The next time they met, it was for the park clean up.

As the morning light shone through the open window of the attic, Ren Amamiya grumbled quietly into consciousness. He groaned quietly, reached his hand over and pat where Ren thought he left his phone until he finally found it, then turned over to his side and unlocked the phone to check the time.

“Hey...Ren?”

The quiet voice of Morgana caught Ren’s attention as he slowly sat up into a seated position on his futon, looking down at the tuxedo not-cat with a raised brow. “What’s up, Morgana? We’ve got the clean-up today, right?”

For being a cat-not-cat and a Phantom Thief, Morgana’s body and facial language weren’t subtle in the least. His ears were swiveled back partially, his eyes darted to and fro as he looked Ren in the face, then at the mattress, and then to his arms—

_Ah._

The delinquent swung his legs out to rest them on the floorboards and stretched lightly to get the stiffness out of his body, then turned his attention to the not-cat to address him. “I’m not talking about it, Morgana.”

“But—.”

“That’s final,” Ren stated, perhaps more harsh than he had meant, because Morgana flinched at the delinquent’s tone as his ears swivelled the rest of the way back to press against his head. With a quiet sigh, the boy picked up the tuxedo not-cat, with a quiet complaint from Morgana that he could get up there himself. Ren placed Morgana in his lap and held him close to his body.

“Ren? What’re you doing?”

“Giving you a hug.” Ren’s voice felt more somber than normal, barely above a whisper. “Thank you for worrying about me, Morgana.”

Morgana hummed quietly, looking up at Ren, then pushing up with his hind legs and nuzzled the top of his head underneath the boy’s chin, the action bringing a smile to Ren’s face. “Of course I worry about you, you jackass. You’re my frie— I uh, I mean you’re my ticket to exploring Mementos! That means I need you in tip-top shape so you can lead the Phantom Thieves.”

The delinquent let out a quiet laugh, gently scratching underneath Morgana’s chin, the not-cat purring loudly against Ren’s chest. “I suppose I’m still trying to get used to that, y’know...Having friends, I mean. Still feels weird to call them that, but...”

“Well you know what, Ren? At the very least, you’re my friend, and I'm your friend. And you better not forget it!”

Ren’s laugh is louder this time, closer to feeling like himself. “How could I, with you constantly nagging me?” Setting Morgana at his side, Ren looks down at his arms and rubs them through the black sleeping shirt. “...We’ll think of something. Bad habits are always the hardest to break, right?”

Morgana hummed his agreement, doing a big stretch before hopping off the futon atop the storage boxes. “In any case, you’ve gotta get to that clean up today! Chop chop, delinquent boy, you gotta get ready or you’ll be late!”

Another of Ren’s laughs filled the attic, the boy commenting on how the not-cat is a slave driver as he went to get dressed into his Shujin gym clothes. Ren heard Morgana let out a sigh through his nose, and knew the not-cat’s eyes were on him. He elected to ignore him for now.

* * *

Of all the times to get stopped, now was the worst time. “I’m sorry, but I’m in a bit of a hurry.” Kasumi stated, attempting to get the older man in front of her to take a hint.

Unfortunately for her, the man didn’t take the hint. “You go to Shujin, right?” He asked, in a ‘concerned’ tone that sent a small chill down the gymnast’s spine. “I heard things have been rough there lately, what with that violent incident that happened. You wanna go talk about it somewhere?” The false worry from this, frankly, slimy individual was about as subtle and deceptive as a baseball bat to the head.

Kasumi had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep her voice steady. _I have to be calm about this_. “Thank you for your concern, sir. However, I really am in a hurry, so if you’d please excuse me…” The honor student gave her customary bow to the older man and began walking past him.

The man, unfortunately for her, still didn’t know how to take a hint.

With surprising swiftness, the middle aged man snatched Kasumi’s wrist into his grip and pulled her so she was forced to face him.

“...Ah!”

“C’mon, there’s no need to be shy.” The man’s ‘calming’ smile was horrid to look at, and the voices of the people around them started to whisper. 

Kasumi could only avert her gaze, looking down at the ground. She could feel herself shaking slightly as she struggled to keep her composure. “Like I said…” The gymnast pulled a bit at the tight grip on her arm, to no avail.

The middle-aged man didn’t let up as he leaned a bit to get his face into her field of view. “If you’re busy, I’ll put my number in your phone so you can call me later. Sound like a plan?” The man’s grin was cocky in a way so unlike Amamiya-senpai’s. Like he was sure he could do _anything_ and get away with it, no matter how awful it might be. Like he was sure she’d want whatever he wanted too, or otherwise convince her. It was awful to behold.

It was how she imagined Kamoshida looked when he got his way.

“Stop it…” Her voice was barely above a whisper, and could only struggle against the older man’s grip, looking around for help from anyone. To Kasumi’s dismay, the other people who were watching began walking away, pointedly looking anywhere other than the two of them. Kasumi felt the helplessness well up inside herself, her free arm coming up to hold onto her bag slung over her shoulder and to keep the arm between herself and the creep.

“Y’know, we could talk about it for a bit and then I could take yo—Agh!”

She jolted at the man’s sudden outcry, and Kasumi felt her forearm released from the creep’s grasp. Her gaze left the ground, and she found herself staring at the reason for the older man’s outburst. Amamiya-senpai was standing there in his Shujin gym clothes, with what was looking like a frighteningly tight grip on the creep’s forearm. Kasumi brought her wrist close to herself to rub it, attempting to get the ache out.

It was the older man’s turn to struggle, but he didn’t budge an inch out of the delinquent’s grasp. “What the hell’re you doing?”

Amamiya-senpai was silent, his face a stoic mask of neutrality even amongst the new whispers from the onlookers around them. He only stared at the man for another moment, then turned his gaze to Kasumi, side eyeing her. Assessing her.

“W-We were just talking! I was just being friendly,” the creep lied, attempting to charm Senpai with a false smile, reaching his free hand to the gymnast. “Isn’t that right?”

The absolute very _last_ thing she wanted was his touch, so Kasumi did the first thing that came to mind; hide behind Senpai, and practically use him as cover. Her gaze flit between the creep and Amamiya-senpai, the older man looking furious that his ploy didn’t work. Her senpai’s gaze landed on her out of the corner of his eye, and softened the tiniest bit.

“What’re you getting so jumpy about?” The creep’s tone dripped with venom, Amamiya-senpai’s gaze snapping to him and his expression turning to steel in an instant. “Like you’re anything special! Dammit, let go of me, you son of—!”

A flurry of movements, a choking cough, and a ‘thump!’ later, the older man was on the ground, groaning and coughing until he fell unconscious. Kasumi blinked and had to take a moment to process what had just happened, thankful for her experience in having studied gymnastic routines to be able to break down what she just witnessed.

The creep had reached for the delinquent, and Senpai responded by blocking with his free arm. He then stepped forward, using the momentum from his block to strike the man in the throat; She wasn’t sure, but Kasumi thought she saw that his hand was flat and that he struck with the tips of his fingers, right at the spot between the man’s neck and his chin. As the older man began choking, Senpai struck with his foot in what looked like the side of the man’s knee, which sent him to the ground. Once there, Amamiya-senpai pulled the creep by the grip he had his arm, releasing it and striking with his palm against the side of the creep’s head, sending him straight onto the ground.

Kasumi’s eyes went from the man on the ground to the transfer student she was next to, and only realized in that moment that he was looking at her with a quirked eyebrow and an amused look.

“Y’know, Yoshizawa, you’re rather close.”

She was close enough that she was practically leaning on him, and could feel the heat radiating off his body. Her eyes widened, and Kasumi took two steps back, giving Amamiya-senpai a small bow. “Than—” But she couldn’t even finish getting the words out before she felt those two frustratingly familiar fingers tap her on the forehead. Kasumi let out a yelp and an annoyed whine. She straightened, about to snap at the delinquent and let him know just how much of an aggravating jerk he is, when Kasumi saw Senpai holding up a hand to stop her. _He actually looks...concerned?_

“We can’t stay here, Yoshizawa. People are talking, and this guy’s gonna wake up soon. C’mon.” Kasumi suddenly became acutely aware of the whispers around them, about them, and nodded her agreement. 

Before they left, however, Senpai did something she would have objected to had he not just saved her from a creep; He knelt next to the middle aged man he had just knocked unconscious. There, she watched as he patted down the man’s pockets until he found what he wanted. Out of the pants pocket came a wallet, and it evidently didn’t take too long to find what looked like the man’s identification. Before Kasumi could ask anything, Senpai let out a low, near _furious_ growl. When he spoke, he did so in a loud voice that bordered on yelling.

“Fucking fifty year old scumbag preying on a sixteen year old highschooler. How fuckin’ slimy can you get?” 

Senpai tossed the wallet with a dismissive scoff onto the older man’s body, then turned towards Shibuya Central Street and started walking, Kasumi following close after him, only sparing one backwards glance towards the unconscious man.

_He’d be fine...right?_

They walked for several minutes until Amamiya-senpai made a turn into an alley that didn’t seem to ever see the light of day. There was a slight bit of apprehension as Kasumi followed him into that alley, but she trusted Senpai. The two of them stopped in front of a shop that had a sign reading ‘Untouchable’ in neon green English. How did he know about this place?

That was when Amamiya-senpai turned and held both hands out, stopped before he touched her, and gave her a look that seemed like he was asking for permission. With the nod of her head, Kasumi gave him her consent, and the delinquent gently placed his hands on both shoulders.

The tone of Amamiya-senpai’s voice was quiet and gentle as he spoke. “Are you okay, Yoshizawa? You're not hurt, are you?”

Kasumi gave a thankful smile and nodded in reply. “Thank you for your concern, Amamiya-senpai. That was certainly scary...But, I’m alright now, thanks to you.” 

Amamiya-senpai’s expression and posture relaxed at the response, his hands coming off of Kasumi’s shoulders to land at his sides. “Good to hear...” The boy let out a slow, relieved, and tired sigh as Amamiya-senpai brought his hand up to his face. “God, I’m tired.” If he really was, he certainly looked it. There were slight bags under his eyes from the last time Kasumi saw him…

“Ah-um…” Kasumi’s stuttering seemed to have caught the transfer student’s attention, Amamiya-senpai letting his hand drop off his face to look at her, an eyebrow quizzically raised. Kasumi had to gather her thoughts momentarily before speaking. “May I ask you something, Amamiya-senpai?” For once, he didn’t react to the ‘senpai’ comment by poking her in the forehead. Maybe he was getting used to it? “So...What made you step in to help me?”

Amamiya-senpai let out a quiet hum, reaching a hand up to play with a couple strands of his hair. “Easy; I couldn’t sit by and just let something like that happen.” The boy gave a noncommittal shrug. “Nothing else besides that, really.”

“I...see.” Kasumi looked off to her side, hand fidgeting with her bag strap. She couldn't help but be a little dispirited by his nonchalance.

“Oh? Why do you sound so...disappointed, Yoshizawa?” The mischievous tone of his voice immediately snagged the girl’s attention, and more importantly her concern.

Amamiya-senpai leaned in with his forearm propped against the wall behind Kasumi, getting close to her causing a light pink blush to dust the first year’s cheeks and a yelp to escape her lips. “What were you expecting me to say? Something cliche, something along the lines of ‘I stepped in because I couldn’t let my cute little kohai get harassed like that?’”

Kasumi’s eyes widened at the comment, and the blush on her face deepened for a moment as she shied away a bit and averted her eyes from Senpai’s. This lasted for all of three seconds as she remembered exactly who it was in front of her, talking to her, and when Kasumi’s eyes landed back on Amamiya-senpai’s face, she could see that infuriating grin playing at his lips as he struggled to hold back his laughter. 

Her own face fell into a deadpan stare, and she reached up with her free hand to lightly flick Amamiya-senpai on the nose. The boy flinched back, his eyes crossed as he looked down at his nose, and Kasumi pouted up at him as he did. “It’s not nice to tease a girl like that, Senpai. You should know better.”

To that, the raven-haired boy’s reaction was quiet laughter and the waving of his hand like he was clearing the air. “You’re right, you’re right. I apologize, Yoshizawa.”

His apology placated Kasumi, a small smile spreading on her face. “ Apology accepted, Senpai. And I apologize for asking something that may have seemed strange.” Her gaze turned up to the raven-haired boy’s, holding his attention for the moment. “You’re headed to the school cleanup as well, right?” Something about that clicked in her mind, and Kasumi took out her phone. “The cleanup…”

It was when she saw the time that the gymnast remembered, gasping quietly. “Look at the time—!” Kasumi saw Senpai’s finger on her phone, pulling it down so he could take a look at the time, and watched him jolt in realization. She heard a quiet “Oh shit _,_ ” leave his lips, their eyes meeting in panic.

They both had the same idea; Start running. And so the two of them took off at a sprint out of the alley, slowing down only to weave through the crowd more easily.

“Pick up the pace, Yoshizawa! I’d rather we not be later than we already are!” 

Kasumi was ready to agree when she realized a second, important piece of information as she looked over Amamiya-senpai running next to her. “I can’t! I forgot my gym clothes at school!” The gymnast broke off from the raven-haired boy, yelling over her shoulder. “I’ll see you at the cleanup, promise!” She ran as fast as she could without running into anyone, just barely making it onto the train back to Aoyama-Itchome.

* * *

Ren was lightly sweating by the time he met up with Ryuji and Ann at the park, the former surprised and the latter confused.

“Yo, Ren-Ren, what took you so long? Spend all your time getting up so you had to rush here?” Of course Ryuji’s first words to Ren were to tease him, the blond boy’s lips curved into a shit-eating grin.

“Wait,” said the blonde girl next to Ryuji, Ann’s eyebrow raised in confusion and surprise. “Did you really come here from home in your gym clothes?”

The frizzy, raven-haired delinquent sighed quietly, running a hand through his mop of black hair. “To answer the first question, I had to handle a...situation at the station square.” _Situation is an understatement, but it always feels good to put a genuine asshole in their place._ Ren could feel the sweat clinging to his face and he was starting to get annoyed at the feeling, grabbing the bottom of his gym shirt and lifting it to wipe at his face. “To the second question, of course I fuckin’ wore this from home. What, was I supposed to change here and get my everyday clothes all sweaty from walking from there to here and back?”

“No...that’s…” “...Dude…”

Their comments and tone of voice caught Ren’s attention, the delinquent pulling his shirt away from his face so he could actually see, and what he saw was the two blondes pointedly looking away, blushes coloring both their faces. Ren merely looked between the two, his eyebrow raised quizzically. “What?”

“Uh— nothing!” Ryuji was scratching the back of his head and looking elsewhere, but it was Ann who gave it away; Her terrible poker face and roaming eyes revealed what they were trying to avoid looking at. Ren turned his gaze downwards and saw that a light sheen of sweat covered his exposed abdominal muscles, and it clicked for him.

“Ohhhhh.” Ren looked back up at his friends, both of whom were blushing harder than before, and let the Joker grin appear on his face. “Perverts.”

“You’re the one showing off!” “Screw you, Ren!”

Their outrage at him brought the laughter rumbling out of Ren, laughter that he sorely needed after earlier, the hem of his shirt falling from his grasp to cover his abs again. He eventually got himself under control, lightly slapping his cheeks to chase the laughter away. Ren’s eyes glanced over Ann’s outfit, and something about it caught his eye. “Hey Ann. Are you gonna do the cleanup in that, rather than your gym clothes?”

Ann scoffed at the very thought. “Of course not! I brought my gym clothes with me.” Her gaze turned downcast, a sigh leaving the blonde’s lips. “I was gonna change in the bathroom, but now there’s a huge line.”

A quiet “Ohhhh,” came from Ryuji, who leaned back against the tree behind him. “That makes sense. Man, sounds like it sucks to be a girl.”

Before Ann or Ren could make a comment on what Ryuji just said, a familiar black haired boy in Shujin gym clothes walked up to the three of them, grabbing their attention with his presence. “It’s such a nice day out that even the weather seems to be mocking us,” Yuuki complained quietly, shaking his head.

“Dude, Mishima,” Ryuji shook his head in disbelief. “Could you try pushin’ your way into our conversation a little less awkwardly next time?”

Ren took a step closer to Ryuji and lightly slapped the blond boy’s upper arm. “Lay off him, ‘Yuji.” Leaving the blond to rub at his shoulder, Ren turned his attention to the boy who just walked into their conversation. “What’s up, Yuuki?”

“Hey Ama— er, R-Ren.” Seemed to Ren that Yuuki still wasn’t used to calling him by his first name, let alone dropping the honorifics. But that stutter cleared up once Yuuki started to complain again as he kicked his foot against the ground. “I bet some Kichijoji clean-freak hung paper dolls up all over and prayed for clear skies today.”

As Yuuki spoke, Ren could hear the quiet, telltale 'clacking' sound of footwear on stone, of someone approaching them. He allowed his vision to go grayscale and his senses to expand as the Third Eye opened. From behind him, to his right, Ren could see the bright blue aura of Dr. Maruki approaching them, the Counselor Arcana spinning above his head, and the delinquent relaxed. _Of all the adults I've had the misfortune of dealing with, Maruki is by far the least annoying._ In fact, the doctor’s presence had a habit of making Ren actually feel relaxed, which was something he wasn’t exactly used to but certainly something he welcomed.

“You got it.” Ren heard Maruki talking and had to mentally shake himself out of his thoughts, swearing silently at himself - he missed Maruki meeting up with them and part of the conversation.

Ryuji seemed confused, scratching the side of his head. “Uh, in those clothes?”

“Oh, no. I’m in a different— ” “There you are, Dr. Maruki!”

Maruki was in the middle of explaining, but he was cut off when a pair of girl students walked up to the group.

“We’re going to start prepping soon, Dr. Maruki…”

Ann tilted her head as she looked over at Dr. Maruki. “Prepping what?”

“I’m part of the cooking crew,” replied Maruki, a winning smile on his face. “Hope you’re looking forward to a solid meal.”

“Careful, Doc,” Ren retorted, a smirk on his lips. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the two girls flinch at the sound of his voice and elected to ignore them. “I’ve been living with an excellent cook, so I’ve been spoiled quite a bit. Hope you match up.”

Dr. Maruki rubbed the back of his neck, shaking his head and laughing nervously. “Amamiya-san, you and your expectations of me…” The doctor walked towards the two girls and gave a backwards wave to the group. “See you all later.” As the three of them walked off, Ren could hear the two girls asking if the doctor was okay, if that ‘awful delinquent’ threatened him or anything.

Ryuji let a breath out through his nose, exasperation clear on his face. “Dr. Maruki, more like Dr. Popular...”

It seemed Yuuki was unperturbed by Dr. Maruki’s perceived popularity. “I’m sure the Phantom Thieves will be even bigger someday.”

Before Ren could make a comment on Yuuki’s assertion, the sound of a megaphone filled their ears. The student council president had their attention as she gave the students of Shujin their instructions for the day, with the promise of a pork miso soup at the end of the cleanup.

“Pork miso soup, huh?” Ren rubbed his chin and grinned at the prospect. “Pretty good reward for finishing off the cleanup, depending on how it’s made.” He certainly wasn’t salivating at the thought, not at all.

“FYI,” Yuuki started, catching everyone else’s attention. “The school already assigned the groups at random. They’re four people apiece, boys and girls mixed.”

Ryuji looked dejected at the prospect of not being able to team up with his friends. “Oh...really?”

The student council president’s voice came over the megaphone again. “Now that those announcements have been made, please break into your groups and head to your assigned areas.”

The blond boy had a grin on his face, rolling his shoulder slowly. “Alright, let’s just get this over with as fast as possible so we can chow down on that soup and get the hell outta here!”

“Just try not to cause any _trouble_ , Ryuji.” Ren joked, that mischievous grin on his face again.

Ryuji huffed but couldn’t stop the good natured smile from appearing. “Yeah yeah, you jackass. See you after the cleanup!”

* * *

“Hey...her, with the ribbon and the ponytail. That her? The honors student?”

Kasumi could hear the conspiratorial whispers from her fellow students, a frown tugging at her lips. _They weren’t even doing anything! Just standing there and gossiping._ Well, Kasumi would at least keep working in spite of her group’s inactivity, the long ended tongs clacking quietly as she did so. 

“I bet she’s just here because it’ll make her look good to the teachers.”

“Doubt she’s here to actually help out. Miss honor student is too good for us, after all.”

“Man, forget that. Have you guys heard that she and the _transfer student_ know each other? People saw him walk with her up to the roof-”

“Excuse me!” The group’s gossiping whispers stopped when Kasumi interrupted them, her most saccharine smile causing her face to ache from having to force it. “There’s a lot of stuff to pick up over here and I’d like some help to get it all. Could one of you help me, please?”

With a grumble, one of the students made their way over to her to assist with picking up the trash on the ground. Kasumi hummed quietly, all the while grumbling internally at her group’s gossiping habits.

An errant thought crossed her mind as she worked, one that made her lose her concentration maintaining her fake smile.

_I wonder how Senpai is doing…?_

* * *

For once, Ren was exerting a surprising amount of self control, enough that even he was shocked at himself. There was quiet gossiping all around himself, which was centered on, obviously, two people; himself and Yoshizawa. Ren had already tied his gym jacket around his waist, if only so he could feel more of the breeze and more easily adjust the compression sleeves he was wearing. He could already hear some new whispers around him.

“About those sleeves-” “Why is he wearing them-?” “What do you think his relation is to the honors student-?” “Did you hear how they went up to the roof together? What do you think they did-?”

All the chatter around him stopped when Ren let out a breath that was as much a sigh as it was a growl. He turned his gaze to his three group members, the three of them freezing up as Ren gave them one of his more frightening glares. With one hand holding the tongs to pick up garbage off the ground, Ren picked up a piece of trash off the ground, maintaining his glare at his group, and then pointedly shoved that trash into the bag he was using for carrying garbage.

With a jolt, his group members quickly got back to working, making sure to not to make any eye contact with the angry delinquent, some people muttering that if they looked at him wrong he’d punch them in the face.

The way Ren was feeling right then, there certainly wasn’t any guarantee that he wouldn’t do just that.

The majority of Ren’s afternoon was spent doing this, frankly, infuriating task, with the whispers cropping up here and there and he was doing his damnedest to just block them out. It was a miracle he got through it without knocking someone’s lights out.

“The cleanup is officially complete.” Those words had Ren perking up as he turned to the sound of the student council president’s voice over the megaphone. “Thank you for all your hard work, everyone. Would the leader of each group please come and get the soup for their teams?”

With their work finally completely after several hours, Ren had every excuse to crash onto a park bench and sighed quietly as he collapsed onto his seat. Physical exertion like this wasn’t something that was difficult, not at all. It’s the constant gossip that was mentally taxing, and having to rein in his attitude left Ren wanting to go home already before he broke someone’s jaw.

Ren turned his gaze to the group’s third year leader, the older boy panicking as soon as the delinquent looked at him and turning around immediately to talk to the two girls who made up the rest of their group.

“So, now that the soup’s doled out, everyone’s free to do whatever they want. Including getting the hell outta here.”

“Oh, okay.”

The other girl’s eyes glanced in Ren’s direction and panicked when their eyes met, squeaking out a “Thank you for everything,” as quickly as she could before she, and the rest of the group, scurried away.

Once they were sufficiently alone after receiving their food, Ren practically flopped onto the park bench and let out a long, irritated growl, hands sliding through his hair. Morgana popped his furry head out of the bag and placed his paw onto Ren’s leg.

“Man...I don’t know the best way to put this but—”

“That fucking sucked.”

“...I was gonna be a bit more tactful than that, Ren...but yeah, that looked awful.”

“Oh! There you are.” 

A familiar, feminine voice called out from Ren’s side, the sound of her voice turning his head to her and Morgana to duck back into the bag, a small smile appearing on Ren’s face. “Hello again, Yoshizawa.” 

“I was trying to find you so I could thank you properly for this morning, Senpai.” The first year smiled back at him, and the delinquent actually felt a slight warmth blossom in his chest. Ren could count on one hand how many people were this genuinely happy to see him, so it felt nice to expand that group, even just a little bit.

Yoshizawa took a look around, the question clear on her face but voicing it anyways. “Um...where’d the rest of your group go?”

Ren let out a chuckle, scratching the back of his neck. “Well, no one wants to hang around the delinquent transfer student who just might punch someone in the face if they look at him wrong, right?”

“Ah...I see.” Yoshizawa broke eye contact, looking off to the side and rubbing her wrist gently. “Well...I’m in pretty much the exact same situation.” 

“Stop me if I get it wrong. ‘Miss Honors Student is too good for us, so we’re just gonna avoid her and talk about her behind her back when we think she can’t hear us, but we’re not really gonna bother turning the volume down at all.’” Ren’s smirk was as cocksure as it was resentful. “How’m I doing so far?”

With a hand to her cheek, Yoshizawa huffed quietly and nodded. “Just like two weeks and a half weeks ago, you’re right.” Her gaze turns back to Ren, a sad smile upon her lips. “Seems all people can do is gossip about the two of us.”

“Sure, but who gives a shit about what they say?” Ren rested his elbow onto his knee and his chin onto his hand. “If they’re not even going to try and get to know either of us, they’re not worth our time, right?”

“I suppose not...” Yoshizawa’s eyes landed upon the bowl of soup that sat next to Ren, his own gaze flitting over to it then back to her.

Ren couldn’t help a sly grin from appearing on his face as he looked up at the honors student from his seated position. “After you get your soup, you wanna eat together?”

Yoshizawa turned her eyes back to him with a smile on her face. Then it looked as though a thought crossed her mind and she tilted her head down to look at the ground, seeming to think about it as she furrowed her eyebrows a bit in concentration. 

He was, naturally, confused. _It's a simple yes or no question, what was there to think about?_

Then Ren saw Yoshizawa lift her head up and give him a smirk, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “Senpai, how are we going to eat soup?” The redhead giggled quietly. “It’s a liquid.”

It took him a moment, but Ren exhaled a long sigh through his nose, his head and face sliding into his hands. On his left, he could hear Morgana in the bag - _that little shit_ \- snickering as quietly as he could. On his right, Ren could hear Yoshizawa giggling a bit louder at his reaction, and knew he had to speak up already. “Alright, alright, you got me.” Ren raised his head out of his hands and pointed off to where Dr. Maruki was standing with the table. “Go get your soup already, mine’s getting cold.”

With a final nod and one last giggle at his expense, Yoshizawa trotted off to the food station, leaving Ren alone.

Well, mostly alone, as Morgana popped his furry head out of the bag and let out a little condescending laugh. “Mwrohahahow, she got you good.”

“Shut it, cat.”

“Not a cat!”

* * *

It only took a little bit before she got her soup, Kasumi having taken the seat next to Amamiya-senpai. With a nod, the redhead said her thanks for the food, the two of them digging in after. Kasumi hummed her delight as she ate, but let out a disappointed sigh when she realized she finished her food all too quickly.

“What the fuck?”

She turned her gaze, meeting eyes with a shocked Senpai, his bowl of food only a quarter finished. His eyes went between her and her bowl, shock slowly being replaced with concern. “Holy shit, Yoshizawa, did you eat your food or did you fuckin’ inhale it?” 

The statement made the girl wince, lowering her eyes to her bowl. “It’s how I eat, Senpai…” Kasumi felt herself pout, eyes downcast. Her thoughts swirl around in her mind, focused on whether it really was weird or not to eat so fast. She knew people found it odd with how much she ate, and at such a speed too, but it always made her feel like a weirdo whenever it was brought up.

A hand gently laid on her shoulder, squeezing gently and breaking Kasumi from her thoughts. Amamiya-senpai had his hand on her shoulder and he looked apologetic? His mouth opened and closed a few times, looking like he was trying to find the words he wanted to say.

“I...apologize, Yoshizawa. Genuinely. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Senpai opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to say something else, but shut it again and let his hand fall off her shoulder and onto his lap.

_Senpai has a tendency to place his hand on people, doesn’t he? Probably people he trusts?_ Kasumi smiled gently and reciprocated the gesture by placing her own hand on Amamiya-senpai’s arm. Senpai’s gaze landed on the hand on his arm, then he looked up and locked eyes with Kasumi.

“Apology accepted, Senpai. And thank you for apologizing.” With a slight wince, Kasumi looked away from him, staring at nothing in particular. “Just, please don’t bring up my eating habits again, okay?”

Kasumi felt his hand cover hers and pat it twice, the action grabbing her attention as she looked at him and saw a small, genuine smile on Amamiya-senpai’s face. “Of course, Yoshizawa. No questions asked.” Both their hands left his arm as Kasumi smiled back at him, thankful for his understanding.

A quiet but comfortable silence fell between the two of them, the delinquent on Kasumi’s left side eating his soup while she looked down at her hands and considered her options. Should she wait for him to finish his food, or just rip the proverbial band-aid off now? Perhaps it was better to just get it over with…

“Amamiya-senpai,” Kasumi started, turning her gaze to the boy on her right. 

To his credit, said boy only flinched a little at the ‘senpai’ honorific as he finished his current spoonful and raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her. “‘Sup?”

“I wanted to properly thank you for-” Is as far as Kasumi got before Amamiya-senpai held his hand up to stop her.

“Yoshizawa, there’s no need to thank me for that. That prick had it coming, and honestly? I let him off easy.” There was a dark look that crossed Senpai’s face and a grin on his lips that didn’t reach his eyes. “I could’ve been much worse than that,” he whispered as his grin curled up a bit more, sending an icy shiver down Kasumi’s spine. “Perhaps I should have been.”

_God forbid he actually gave someone that look..._

Kasumi gingerly placed her hand on Amamiya-senpai’s arm again to get his attention, the look on the boy’s face vanishing as he coughed into his hand, then looked at her out of the corner of his eye. 

She took a breath to steady herself. “Even if you don’t think you need it, I’d still like to give you my thanks. Even if you weren’t scared of him, that man was...frightening, to say the least.” Kasumi gently squeezed Senpai’s arm to let him know how serious she was and beamed at him. “So I truly appreciate what you did for me! Thank you so much.”

Kasumi had seen Amamiya-senpai do a lot, from beating a man unconscious to flipping off teachers to picking locks, but what she hadn’t seen yet was him get embarrassed. A faint pink dusted his cheeks, Senpai’s eyes widened in shock at her words, and his eyebrows shot up past his bangs. He turned his head away, his free arm coming up to scratch at the back of his neck. Kasumi looked down at her hand on his arm and quickly withdrew, feeling her own cheeks begin to warm.

It took a few seconds before she heard his response to her thanks. 

“G-geez, Yoshizawa—” That was the second time she’s heard him stutter too. “What’m I supposed to do with such an earnest and sincere statement like that? Dammit...” She heard a sheepish chuckle come from Senpai, and watched him turn back to her with a warm smile on his face. “I’m serious, though. It was nothing to thank me for, really.” 

“Sorry Senpai,” Kasumi said as she shook her head. “But I’m not even finished yet!” She felt her face fall as she thought on her next words. “There’s...one more issue that I need to address.” She drew in a breath to steady herself, slowly breathing out before continuing, looking Senpai right in the eyes. “I’m also so, so sorry for what happened the other day!”

Kasumi watched Amamiya-senpai blink twice at her words, then tilt his head slightly to the side, and the words ‘ _like a puppy_ ’ came unbidden to her mind. “The...other day?” Clearly he was confused on what she meant.

“The...run-in we had outside the guidance office. With…” Kasumi could feel the bile rise in her throat and her hands clenched into fists. “With _Kamoshida_.” The very feeling of his name on her tongue sickened her.

“Damn, Yoshizawa.” Senpai chuckled quietly, nodding his head. “I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you mention someone without any honorifics or titles-”

“Because he doesn’t _deserve any_!” she practically spat her disdain for the very idea. Kasumi’s fists tightened hard enough to feel her nails dig into the skin of her palm, her eyes screwing shut as she struggled to regain control of her breathing. All she could think about was how that horrid man used his power as a teacher to harm others, could have used that same power to do the same to—

“Hey.” Kasumi opened her eyes to see Amamiya-senpai watching her closely, the same understanding in his eyes as the second time they met, the very meeting she wanted to talk about. “I understand, Yoshizawa. Take your time.”

Closing her eyes, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth, Kasumi calmed herself, exhaling through her nose when she was done.

“...He...had just told me about you a moment prior, so I sort of spoke without thinking there…” Kasumi turned her gaze down, looking away from Senpai for a moment. “I heard some of my classmates gossiping about you too.”

“Oh? Were you disappointed to hear how much of a delinquent I am?” Even if she wasn’t looking at him at that very moment, Kasumi could hear that nigh-omnipresent grin in his voice.

A stray thought crossed Kasumi’s mind. She tilted her head slightly, pretending to be lost in thought with a small, mischievous smile on her face. “We~ell, I do remember how you, as you put it, ‘enjoy teasing’ me, so I was more inclined to believe the rumors.”

Senpai let out a chuckle, pressing his hands to his chest and leaning back on the bench, letting out a mock groan of pain. “Oh, I’m wounded, Yoshizawa, absolutely wounded. I don’t think I’ll ever recover.” The chuckle turned into a laugh when Kasumi leaned over to give him a playful shove on his shoulder, the gymnast letting out a giggle of her own before continuing.

“I don’t like gossip or rumors and the like…And I know this’ll sound strange since we’ve only really had four interactions between us prior to this, but you don’t seem to be the kind of delinquent they’re describing.” Kasumi let out a quiet hum as she thought for a moment. “Although, knowing what little of you that I do...I have to wonder how many of those rumors are true?”

Amamiya-senpai just gave her a nonchalant shrug. “Hit me with the rumors you’ve heard and I’ll tell you if they’re true or not.”

“Hm...let me try and remember them all…” She stared off into space as she began to recall the rumors she’s heard before, counting off on her fingers. “I’ve heard that you carry a knife on your person, that you have a _gun_ on your person, that you’d punch someone for looking at you wrong, that you drink, that you smoke, that you’re part of a yakuza clan, that you’ve slashed a police officer’s tires-” Kasumi noticed out of the corner of her eye that Senpai flinched at that one. “That you’ve committed burglary, murder, and...oh what was the last one?...Elephant tusk trafficking, I think?”

He let out a single bark of a laugh at the last one. “Hah! That’s a new one. Although I think my favorite is ‘illegal driving.’” Senpai gave Kasumi one of his cocky grins. “I’m sixteen with no license, so any driving I do is illegal anyways.” He held up one of his hands. “Ready to hear how many are true?”

“Oh dear, I was hoping it’d be none…”

“Sorry to disappoint.” _He doesn't look sorry at all._

“True,”

_...I'm sorry,_

“Normally I’d have three, but I can only have the one on me at the moment cause of the gym outfit.” 

_What?_

“False,” 

_Okay, good._

“True, depending on the situation.” 

_Honestly, that one I was kind of expecting._

“True,”

_Wait,_

“True,”

_Huh?_

“False.”

_At this point he could just be lying and I wouldn’t even know it._

The next count on his fingers, Senpai visibly cringed and sucked a breath in through his teeth. “The one with the cop is true—” He held a hand up to stop her, which was good because Kasumi was seconds away from shaking his shoulders in frustration. “But in my defense, the guy was a prick who had it coming.”

“The last three are false...man, how would I even get away with that last one?” Senpai shook his head, likely at the very thought of it. “Pretty sure if I got caught doing any of those, I wouldn’t just get a criminal record.” He propped his elbows onto his knees and rested his head on his heads, muttering to himself. “Elephant tusk trafficking? What the fuck, who comes up with that?”

“Some rumors can’t be trusted at all, what with their absurdity; I imagine people just let their imaginations run wild when it comes to you, Senpai.” Kasumi crossed her arms and let out a huff, giving Amamiya-senpai the worst stink eye she could muster when he turned to look at her. “But it seems that some gossip actually can be trusted. Really Senpai? Drinking, smoking, and not just carrying a knife, but three?”

Senpai grinned up at her, in spite of her stink eye. “Don’t forget that I can pick locks, too.”

“You’re not helping your case, Senpai.”

“Wasn’t trying to, Yoshizawa.”

“Why would you even want to do those things anyways? They’re damaging to your health for two of them, and one of them could get you expelled and jailed!”

“I invoke my right to remain silent.”

That had Kasumi pouting at Amamiya-senpai, but all she got in return was a smug smirk. All she could do is let out a sigh and rest her own elbow on her knee, laying her chin on her palm.

“You know, Senpai, it’s things like that that has people shaking in their boots at the very mention of your name…” She couldn’t help but glance at him out of the corner of her eye. “I can’t help but think that’s what you want, too…”

From her side-eyeing, she could see Amamiya-senpai looking at her, the smirk still on his face, as he held up his hand, pressed his index and thumb together, and drew them across his lips like zipping a zipper. Kasumi rolled her eyes and shook her head, fingers drumming on her chin.

_Why does it feel like I'm forgetting something?_

_Something about…_

_Names?_

Kasumi let out a shocked gasp, and Senpai, for all his surety and confidence, jumped slightly. Kasumi sat up straight as an arrow and turned to Amamiya-senpai. “Oh my gosh! I just realized, we haven’t formally introduced ourselves to each other yet!” 

He blinked twice, let out a quiet chuckle and shook his head. “Well, you know I’m not one for formalities or anything like that.” Placing one hand over his chest and holding out the other to Kasumi, Amamiya-senpai gave her a knowing smirk with one eyebrow raised far higher than the other. “Ren Amamiya. Pleased to meet you,” She was about to smile until she heard him mutter, “and bully you.”

Kasumi scrunched up her face, shook her head, and took the hand. She gave Ren-senpai a semi-annoyed glare as she gave him a handshake. “You could’ve left out that last bit, Ren-senpai.”

That smirk only grew at her annoyance. “Oh, I’m very well aware, Yoshizawa.”

“Yes, well-” Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the little girl passing them by lose her grip on her balloon, the string fluttering away from her grasp. With a quick inhale, Kasumi stood up out of her seat and leapt, snatched the balloon’s string out of the air, and landed with a roll that left her crouched on her feet.

“What the f- mm.” Well, at least Senpai had the sense to not swear in front of a child. But something else caught Kasumi’s attention. _Is there a cat nearby? Because I could’ve sworn I heard one meowing just now…_

Kasumi stood up and walked back to the child, crouching down to her level and giving a wide smile. “Got it just in time. Don’t let go of things you like, okay?” The child beamed up at her as she took the balloon back and trotted off. With that settled, the gymnast made her way back to Ren-senpai, whose face was a mixture of curiosity and shock. Kasumi clasped her hands together, feeling a little awkward about the look she was receiving. She wanted to avert her eyes but had to be polite about her apology. “Sorry Senpai, I didn’t mean to run out on you like that.”

In response, Ren-senpai held out his hand, holding...oh, that was her pocketbook. “Kasumi, huh?” Kasumi’s eyes flit back to Senpai’s face, and naturally there was that smirk of his again. She did her best to not let it get to her as she nodded her head, taking the pocketbook back from him and checking to see if anything was missing from it. 

Senpai let out a quiet laugh watching her check her pocketbook. “What? Don’t trust me with your pocketbook, Kasumi?” 

Satisfied that nothing was out of place, she placed it back into her pocket and turned her attention back to him. “Well, you do know how to pick locks, Ren-senpai, so who’s to say you don’t know how to pick pockets too?” Kasumi had a teasing smile playing at her lips.

“Oh, that’s the second time you’ve wounded me with your words today, Kasumi,” Ren-senpai protested, although by the tone of his voice and the smirk that still hadn’t left his lips, he was just teasing her back.

“Considering how tough you’ve proven yourself so far, I think you’ll be just fine, Senpai.” She let out a soft giggle and sat back down next to Ren-senpai, who let out a mock-exasperated sigh. “Besides, think of it as me getting back at you for the teasing.”

Senpai shook his head and laid his chin on his hand, going contemplative as he stared off into the distance. Kasumi tilted her head, wondering if he was thinking about what she— 

_There it was again!_ She looked around to find the source of the meowing, wondering where the cat was. “Senpai, do you hear a cat? I keep thinking I hear one nearby…” Kasumi turned to the boy next to her, eyes still searching for any sign of the feline. 

When the gymnast saw Senpai move, she immediately focused her attention on him. She watched him slowly lift his arm, his gaze serious, his movements purposeful. Ren-senpai held Kasumi’s gaze, his hand finally stopping near his own head. He held that position for a moment, two…

Then Senpai curled his hand into a light fist, bent his wrist at a ninety degree angle, tilted his head slightly, and said “Meow?” in as cute a voice as she’d ever heard him use. Kasumi’s only recourse was obvious. A sputter and a fit of giggles consumed her, her body shaking with laughter, Ren-senpai joining immediately after with his fist pressed against his mouth to muffle his voice. 

When Kasumi finally got herself under control, she wiped away the tears pricking at her eyes, and saw Senpai shaking his head, the raven-haired boy still fighting away the giggles. “To think I’d see the infamous delinquent doing something so...cute!” She had to fight off another fit of tittering laughter at the thought, slapping her cheeks lightly to get herself to calm down.

“Hey! Don’t try and box me into your stereotypes, I’m allowed to be cute!” Ren-senpai huffed and gave her a gentle, lighthearted shove on the shoulder, and Kasumi couldn’t help but giggle a bit more.

They mutually decided, as they wound down from their laughter, to have a quiet moment to relax. Kasumi glanced over at Senpai, who had a pensive look on his face as he stared into the distance. She was about to ask him whether he had something to say, but he was the one to break the silence first.

“Can I...hm, how do I wanna put this?” Ren-senpai reached up to toy with a tuft of his hair, a sheepish look on his face. Kasumi stayed quiet and allowed him enough time to get his thoughts together, her own thoughts wandering to the obvious question of _‘What is he going to ask?’_ When it seemed he collected himself, Ren-senpai turned his gaze back to Kasumi with a serious look on his face. “Kasumi, I’m interested in learning gymnastics. Would you be willing to teach me?”

It took a bit for Kasumi to process what he just said, the request coming from seemingly out of the blue, but she eventually let out a gasp and clasped her hands together. “Senpai, it makes me so happy to hear that! I’d be honored if you allowed me to be your teacher!”

A thought crossed her mind, making her break eye contact with Ren-senpai as she considered it. She was having problems with her own gymnastics, with not getting the results she wanted. The disappointment Kasumi saw on Coach Hiraguchi’s face the last time she practiced, and in herself when she wasn’t feeling her moves landing, had her hesitate on her decision. _Would I really be a good teacher for Senpai?_

She likely wasn’t hiding what she was feeling very well, because the gymnast felt Ren-senpai’s hand tap her once on the shoulder, breaking her from her thoughts. Kasumi turned her attention back to the delinquent, that same hand held up with the palm facing her. With a flourish and the flick of his wrist, Ren-senpai held a coin in between his fingers, a patient smile on his face. “Five hundred yen for your thoughts, Kasumi?” He was rolling the coin between his fingers like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to do.

Watching that yen coin dance around his fingers brought a smile to Kasumi’s face, bringing up the memory of their first meeting. She gave it a moment of thought and, well, she may as well start with the truth. “Well...the thing is, my coach hasn’t been satisfied with my performances lately. And truthfully, neither have I.” Kasumi inhaled and exhaled slowly, drawing up the courage to proceed. “I’m worried that I’m overthinking things...so, it’d be wonderful if you could give me some advice whenever you have the time, Senpai.”

Ren-senpai let out a quiet hum, catching the coin in his hand and seeming to contemplate it as it sat there in his palm. After a moment, he turned his gaze back to Kasumi, closed his hand over the coin, and finally gave her his reply.

“Nope.”

“W-What?!” _That most certainly was not the response I was expecting!_

“Now, don’t get me wrong, it sounds like a good deal; You teach me gymnastics and I just gotta give you advice?” He scoffed, likely at the very idea. “That’s way too good a deal. So good, in fact, that I don’t like it.” Ren-senpai gave her another one of those grins of his as he stared Kasumi down. “So, how about I add a bit to the terms?”

That brought confusion to her face, the gymnast tilting her head slightly and giving her Senpai a questioning look. “Like...like what, Senpai?”

“Easy. You teach me some of your moves, and in return I’ll teach you my moves in self defense and martial arts.” Here, Ren-senpai crossed his arms, his face having turned serious. “This morning taught me that people in the city can be just as bad or even worse than those out in the country.”

Kasumi was legitimately stunned by Senpai's desire to teach her, even as her lips slowly curved into a wide smile. “You would really do that for me, Senpai? I really don’t mind if I just teach you without—” She stopped when Ren-senpai raised his hand, a worried look on his face.

“Kasumi, if I wasn’t there this morning, you might have been hurt. Seriously hurt.” His expression softened into a sad smile. “And as much as I like playing the hero, I definitely can’t always be there. But I can teach you how to defend yourself, and that’s even more important.”

She felt...gladdened by his words, but at the same time she was suspicious. Not that she thought he’d do anything malicious per se, but Kasumi also knows precious little of Ren-senpai. She had to know his intentions, which meant bringing it up.

You can do this, Kasumi, you got this. Just like gymnastics, be bold.

“Senpai?” The title caught Ren-senpai’s attention, as his gaze had been turned downwards. Now, he looked at her with his eyebrow raised quizzically. Kasumi found the words had caught in her throat, and a sudden knot of anxiety took hold of her. But she had to get the words out, she _had_ to. “W-Why are you going this far for me? Why do all this?” She had to know why.

The question seemed to catch Senpai off guard; He had a stunned expression on his face, which became contemplative as he laid his elbows on his knees again. There was about a minute of silence, Kasumi progressively thinking that it was a mistake to ask him that question and that she should apologize to him, but that train of thought was broken when he spoke.

“Well…” When she looked at him, she saw what looked like anxiety flash across his features, but it vanished just as quickly. “I just figured, y’know, we kinda warmed up to each other after that first meeting at the train station, in spite of my bullying.” Here, Senpai flashed that smirk of his, to which Kasumi’s only reply was to roll her eyes, a smile on her face in spite of herself. “I thought, y’know, after the last few meetings and after this morning, we’d...that we’re already…” His smirk fell, and for the first time Kasumi saw him unsure of himself, as Senpai seemed to struggle to get the last part out as his mouth opened and closed repeatedly. When he finally managed to force the words out, Kasumi had to strain her ears to catch what he said.

But catch it she did.

“Already...friends.” 

At that moment, having seen his slumped shoulders and his stare focused on the ground, the way he brought his arms closer together...Kasumi had never seen someone who looked as lonely as Senpai did right then.

_...Right?_

Ren-senpai was quick to shake himself from his stupor, holding his hands up in between the two of them. “I’m not trying to guilt trip you or anything, I just, y’know, I assumed that we were friends after that, or at least I think you’re my friend, but I don’t know if you feel the same way and—”

When Kasumi placed her hand upon Senpai’s shoulder, stopped his rambling in its tracks, and gave him what she hoped was her biggest, brightest smile.

“Of course I’m your friend, Senpai! I wouldn’t have it any other way!”

He blinked at her and looked like he was still processing what she had just said to him. It took him a few seconds, but Ren-senpai returned her smile with one of the most genuine, heartfelt smiles she had seen. 

Senpai brought his hands up to his face and clapped them once against his cheeks, much to Kasumi’s surprise. After a second passed, that genuine smile from earlier morphed into the more familiar cocky smirk he usually had on his face, Ren-senpai holding his hand out to her. “Are you sure about this, Kasumi? I’m likely to bully you just as much, if not more, if you’re my friend.”

With a quiet, half-suppressed giggle, Kasumi reached forward and took Senpai’s hand and squeezed it gently. “I think I can manage just fine, Ren-senpai.” Her smile and his smirk both widened as the two of them shook hands.

Then she watched as his face grew confused; Senpai looked away from her, and she had to strain her ears when he whispered “Faith?” to himself.

“What was that, Senpai?”

“Oh!” He actually looked embarrassed as his hand slipped from hers to toy with some of his hair. “Don’t worry about it, Kasumi.”

She was about to press further when the two of them heard Niijima-senpai over her megaphone.

“Attention Shujin Academy students: the cleanup event will be ending momentarily. Please do not discard your trash in the bins here. Instead, bring your waste to the predetermined location for disposal. After that, we will be officially releasing everyone for the day. Thank you all for your hard work.”

Senpai slowly stood up out of his seat, stretching lightly and cracking his neck audibly. “Looks like the cleanup ’s finished. How about we show each other our moves before we head home?” She watched him hold his hand out to her, the offer to help her up obvious. “We’re already in our gym clothes anyways, may as well take advantage of it.”

Kasumi took his offer, clasping her hand in his and pulling herself to her feet, stretching her limbs as well to prepare for their exercise. “That’s an excellent idea, Senpai! We can start with some core exercises, and then move onto some beginner movements.”

“Sounds like a plan, Kasumi,” Ren-senpai replied with a grin, and gestured for her to take the lead.

* * *

“Man, she really put you through your paces, Ren,” Morgana commented as he popped his head out of the bag on their way back to the train station. The not-cat voice went sing-song, and Ren could hear the smirk in the little shit’s words. “And you went ea~sy on her. I saw how you taught Lady Ann, Mishima, and Ryuji on their first first days, and you weren’t nearly as nice to them, even to Lady—” Morgana let out a surprised yowl as Ren’s hand came down to flick the not-cat in the forehead.

“I didn’t teach her any different, you fuckin’ simp. She just took to it naturally.” Ren’s hand came back up and played with a tangle of his hair as he looked at his phone, eyes locked on Kasumi’s number and the chat that was open. His fingers hovered above the on screen keyboard as he internally debated if he should send what he had typed out. As was Ren’s natural reaction to internal debates, he said ‘fuck it’ and sent the text anyways, damn the consequences.

> Ren: _  
> _ _Hey Miss Gymnast, be sure not to break anyone’s face too badly with what I taught you, okay? I don’t need to get into more trouble than I already am._

He bit the inside of his cheek, wondering if he should delete the message. Unfortunately for him, the pop up saying the recipient is currently typing gave away the fact that she already read it. All Ren could do was wait until Kasumi finally finished typing.

> Miss Gymnast:  
>  _Oh don’t worry about me, Senpai. I’m sure you can get into enough trouble on your own, anyways._

Ren let out a quiet chuckle, shaking his head as he typed out his reply.

> Ren:  
>  _Ouch. True, though._

> Miss Gymnast:  
>  _Joking aside, thank you for today! It was nice practicing with someone else outside of gymnastics for a change, and I’m grateful for you teaching me how to defend myself. Now I just need to put it into practice, just like everything else!_

> Ren:  
>  _Guess I better keep up my own practice, otherwise you’ll be kicking my ass before I know it. Anyways, I’ve got shit I’ve gotta take care of. Talk to you later, Kasumi._

> Miss Gymnast:  
>  _Okay! Talk to you later, Senpai!_

Ren smiled at his phone, swiping off of the chat window and navigated back to his home screen. “Now,” he started, as the smile turned into a Joker grin as he hit the button for the MetaNav. “Let's put what she just taught us into practice, shall we?” With his phone close to his face, the leader of the Phantom Thieves quietly spoke into the microphone.

“Junichiro Okamura. Mementos.”

  
“ _Candidate found. Beginning navigation..._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, been a bit since my last update, I sincerely apologize. Hard to keep up the steam when I have to write my own dialogue and not just edit what's already been done. That and D&D. And video games. And uh, y'know, current events.
> 
> Also, peek those new tags.
> 
> For the record, I had several ideas as to what Ren would have done to slimy bastard man, but I let my gf choose for me.  
> 
> 
> Also, I offer these sacrifices to the ShuSumi gods (Spoiler warning for literally all of them, play the damn game first before you read any of em);
> 
> I've binged [Rig the Game: Royal](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23699164) like 3 separate fuckin' times, guys that fic is so good go read it.  
> Big thanks to whenyouwriteinbed and VitaminLuce for beta'ing this chapter, go read their fics;  
> Bed's; [ Recollections of Your Heart](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23855620/chapters/57335611) and [Battles Forgotten](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24882631) [.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24809011)  
> Luce's; [A Birthday Well Spent](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23762923) and [Wistful Dreams](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24296992).  
> Thanks to Dev0ted for giving me advice on the texting portion at the end! Go read [The Wish for Control.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24510076/chapters/59167783)
> 
> [Also](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CasOvkBd4M) [also](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T4PLjoBkxc) [have](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIN523aa3BI) [some](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbO49Hmm0WY) [lovely](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g3FpGcJ8nE)[,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdIDefF_OkQ) [calming](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSQ6CyyPatM) [tracks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kUB_YtrkZc) [that](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeuVaWkhV74) [I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70gWgN8-C7s) [listen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pnyow59fA0) [to](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UOLcSgbkwU) [when](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezb5MxGps-U) [writing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ) [for](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwy0636eYsA) [Delinquent](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHRuTYtSbJQ)[/](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85VQEzwzAvE)[Asshole](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvLA0SfXXto) [Ren](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFsxqq7i3Jo)[.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_7nEIh7hYQ)


	5. Cloudy Thoughts on a Rainy Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two friends share an umbrella on a rainy day.
> 
> A secret is shared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>    
> 
> 
> ...Listen—

**6/6.**

It was a cloudy morning and a rainy afternoon the fifth time they met. 

Ren was leaning against one of the support pillars for the Shibuya subway, earplugs in so he could listen to his music while waiting for his train to Aoyama-Itchome to arrive, and multitasking by checking the Phan-site for updates on the Madarame scandal. It had only been a day since the old man had his Change of Heart and confessed his crimes during a televised conference, and the comments coming in on the Phan-site were good, bad, and neutral in all meanings of the words. 

Much like the first Change of Heart, people were confessing how seeing a man like that brought to justice gave them the courage to stand up to the abusive, cruel and otherwise toxic people in their lives, to fight back against their abusers however they could.

It brought a warmth to Ren’s heart, a kind of fuzzy feeling that made him glad to have found himself in this line of work if it meant helping people like this, and definitely helped offset his near constant exhaustion. It certainly helped that the pay wasn’t half bad either, being leagues better than the volunteer work he did, or the part-time job he had at the beef bowl place.

In spite of how good he felt about the work he did, Ren also couldn’t help that small seed of doubt in the back of his mind.

The seed that was planted there after they had stolen Kamoshida’s Treasure and changed his heart.

The one that continued to whisper after they found out the truth to Madarame and changed his heart as well.

The quiet, seething voice that said that just because a person confessed to their sins does not mean th _ey_ _are absolved of their crimes, that the man had allowed a mother to die and had driven one of his pupils to commit suicide, just like Kamoshida had and deserved to be punished in turn, desERVED NOTHING MORE THAN_ —

Ren clenched his eyes tight and grit his teeth so hard he thought his molars would crack.

The thoughts had ceased but the effect they had on his mood remained, a quiet growl having built up in the boy’s throat — Ren had to force himself to relax, otherwise the grip he had on his phone might break the damn thing. With shaky fingers, he swiped away from the Phan-site, locked his phone, and slid it into his pocket. 

_I still have some time. Maybe some people watching will take my mind off of things?_

He breathed out quietly, closed his eyes and let his senses expand as Ren’s Third Eye opened...

...And was almost immediately met with the bright, shining blue aura of Ryuji coming up from behind to greet him as the Chariot Arcana spun lazily above his head.

Ren pulled his earplugs out and addressed Ryuji with a “Mornin’, ‘Yuji,” without actually turning around. Even before receiving the Third Eye from Igor, he had a habit of acknowledging people’s presence before they made themselves known, and Ryuji wasn’t an exception.

“Morniiin’, Ren-Ren!” Thankfully for Ren, Ryuji was used to it by now.

Turning his full attention to Ryujii, Ren gave the bleached-blond boy an exaggerated smirk. “What’s bonkin’, bud?”

“Hah! See, now you’re sayin’ it!”

“I’m telling you, Ryuji, it’s not gonna catch on,” Ren said with an exasperated groan, and brought his hand up to toy with a tangle of hair. “I’m only sayin’ it so you don’t feel bad.” He deigned not to outright tell Ryuji that the boy was still in his winter uniform, but decided to give Ryuji a hint when the delinquent checked to make sure his compression sleeves still adequately covered his arms. He internally kept track of how long it would take Ryuji to notice.

It seemed Ryuji didn’t notice, because he just rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah, dude.” A moment passed before Ryuji sidled up next to Ren, his voice dropping lower. “You saw the conference, right?” Receiving a nod in response, he kept on going excitedly, “The response was huge, dude! Everyone’s talkin’ about the calling card.” 

A large grin appeared on Ryuji’s face. “Girls are checkin’ me out today...maybe they can’t help but sense my overflowin’ phantom thief charisma?” A quiet gasp left the blond boy’s lips, his eyes widening in realization. “Oh shit, dude. Am I finally startin’ to get popular with all the fly hon—.” It was at that moment that Ryuji appeared to notice Ren’s button up shirt and compression sleeves. “...Oh no!”

“What’s wrong, Ryuji?” Ren’s shit-eating grin held no mercy in it as he crossed his arms and tilted his head. “Finally noticing something you should’ve remembered?” He let out a quiet laugh, shaking his head. “Took you twenty seconds, by the way. I was bettin’ on thirty.”

“You’re such a dick sometimes.” Ryuji hung his head, ran a hand through his hair, and let out a frustrated grunt. “I knew people were lookin’ at me...goddammit! I gotta go home and change, don’t wait up for me.” Patting Ren on the shoulder and giving one last groan, Ryuji began his sprint back home.

“Wait ‘Yuji, you could just put the blazer in your - aaaand he’s gone.”

As silly as the encounter was, Ren was glad for it. It certainly helped his mood after his earlier thoughts. He leaned against the pillar, steadying his breathing and continuing his wait for the train to arrive, and hopefully not fall asleep and end up missing the damn thing.

* * *

Kasumi gave a worried glance up at the overcast sky, chewing the inside of her cheek. She’d forgotten her umbrella today without even checking the weather forecast, and now she was likely to have to run in the rain all the way from Shujin to the train station.

_Well...at least it’ll make for good training...right?_

_Yeah. Sure. That’s the excuse I’ll use._

The chatter of the girls around her brought Kasumi out of her thoughts, as she began unintentionally listening in on one conversation in particular.

“Hey, did you see that conference last night with that famous artist? Madarame, I think?”

“Ohhhh yeah, I saw that on the news! Didn’t he confess to stealing his student’s works?” 

Kasumi had heard her father talking about that at dinner last night. He found it horrible that people in such prominent positions would be so corrupt, and thinking back to what had happened at Shujin with Kamoshida, she couldn’t help but agree.

“Yeah, and apparently he got a ‘calling card,’ just like Kamoshida. Bet it’s the same people doing it, too. Heard the news call ‘em ‘The Phantom Thieves.’ Same name as the one on Kamoshida’s calling card.”

_The calling card was similar, but if I remember right, the design was different. Father showed me the differences between the first and the second card...whoever these ‘Phantom Thieves’ are, it seemed they acquired a more talented graphic designer than their first one._

“How do you think they get people to confess? I mean, they can’t actually be ‘stealing hearts,’ right?”

To steal someone’s heart and make them willingly confess their own sins...truth be told, it sounded like something out of a shonen anime or a video game to Kasumi. There had to be something tangible to it, but…when she watched the footage herself, Madarame looked genuinely repentant...like his entire personality had been changed, as though he’d suddenly grown a conscience.

_...Just like Kamoshida._

“Could be blackmail? I dunno.”

“...You think it’s the transfer student? I’d bet anything that guy had something to do with it, especially since I heard he was seen with Kamoshida at one point before he got a calling card. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was him either, I heard that delinquent kicks cats in—”

Kasumi immediately began to pick up her pace as soon as she heard them bad mouthing Ren-senpai. Even before, she would’ve been irritated by the baseless rumors swirling around her, but now? Now she’s doing her best not to make a scene defending Ren-senpai to some students who were spouting absolute nonsense about someone they didn’t even take the time to get to know. 

_Goodness knows I already had to deal with that myself with the rumors about me. I can’t even imagine what Ren-senpai has to put up with all day._

Even with her speedy pace, Kasumi was hearing the rumors around her like she was tuned in to a radio signal, the students’ voices sounding even louder than before. 

“I heard that the transfer student ’s been harassing the honor student. God what a—” 

“Those ‘Phantom Thieves’ can’t be real, no way.” 

“Bet he’s blackmailing her into hanging out with him.” “Yeah, and I heard he carries a knife on him too, probably threatens her with it.”

“People are sayin’ that Ushimaru’s a...what was it? Bipolar government spy?”

“Heard that delinquent smokes on the roof of the school.” “Well I heard he’s got drugs in his bag, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Y’hear about Madarame? Watchin’ that old guy cry on live TV was—.”

“You think she’s dealing drugs with the transfer student?”

“I think I heard something about Sakamoto bein’ a nightlife rapper that flopped and now—.”

“Think I have a shot with that honor student?” “Hah, no chance in hell. I mean, neither do I, but man, I’d love to—.”

“Maybe that transfer student actually punched someone before? I wouldn’t put it past him.”

“She must think she’s so special just cause she’s an honor student. Bet she just did the board some ‘favors,’ I mean look at those legs of hers.” “Think the honor student fucked the delinquent like she did with the athletic—?”

A painful buildup in her chest had been threatening to burst but it was the last two comments that had Kasumi practically sprinting for the school, her face burning and tears pricking at her eyes. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard, not just about Senpai but herself as well, the scornful remarks about them both like a battering ram on her heart.

_Is that what they really think of us? That Senpai’s some ruthless criminal that just wants to hurt everyone? That I...that I_ slept _my way into being an honor student and a gymnast, rather than getting there of my own hard work? Is that all they think I’m worth…? That I’m just a toy to watch perform? Just a piece of meat to use and throw away?_

All she could do was keep her watery eyes on the ground, taking one hasty step at a time as the cruelty of it all wormed its way into her brain, tainting Kasumi’s thoughts of school work, of gymnastics routines, of life. 

Kasumi never wanted to be treated like she was special, that was why she went on the clean up trip to begin with. Her everyday life was supposed to have a simple to understand yet challenging pattern: Go to school, be credited for her hard work and achievements, and work towards attaining her dream of winning gymnastics competitions internationally. Maybe make a few friends to keep the loneliness at bay, and enjoy her time as a teenager while she could.

Instead, she’s being ostracized just for attending school, criticized for anything and everything she does, and all her achievements are being brushed off as just her simply using her body to get them. The one friend Kasumi had managed to make was Senpai, in spite of his ‘bullying’ and teasing, and while it certainly was not his fault, she was on the receiving end of scathing rumors as a result. Everything she’s done, all the work she’s put into achieving her dream, her goal, her life’s work...all of it felt pointless, all of it tasted like bile in her mouth.

Those ideas darkened further as they swirled around her mind, flashes of uselessness, of worthlessness dominating Kasumi’s thoughts. It felt like nothing mattered, that nothing she did mattered. The growing, blistering pain in her chest aching and spiking, demanding to be acknowledged, dema _nding_ _that she just throw herself into oncoming traffic just like_ —.

A sharp, stabbing pain wracked her mind and the redheaded gymnast clutched her head with a hiss and a groan, her eyes screwed shut. Kasumi took a few minutes to lean against a nearby wall, her breathing slow and ragged. She could hear the other students whispering about her, but to her it was as though they were speaking across a great distance, the sound of their voices muffled by the mental torment.

The agony in both her heart and mind faded, but their memories remained and left Kasumi exhausted. Regardless of her tired body and mind, she had to get to class and then to practice. With a sigh, she pushed herself off the wall and trudged her way to the school.

Even the teachers could tell she wasn’t particularly enthusiastic today. Perhaps they didn’t want to pressure her because of what happened in March, or maybe they didn’t want to put too much work onto the honor student gymnast, but Kasumi wasn’t called on to answer any questions throughout the day. Unfortunately for her, it only served to “prove” the rumors right and make her feel worse about herself. especially during lunch as she heard the whispers around her in the cafeteria.

_Why? Why do they feel the need to give me special treatment? I just want to be a normal student…_

The school day passed with all the speed of molasses dripping off of a spoon. Kasumi felt like she was going to go crazy with how slow the day was going, until she was, at last, in the gymnasium. Finally, she could do what mattered most and could ignore all the distractions around her, with no other sounds but the rhythm of her own movement.

Here, Kasumi could be herself.

But, much like that morning, Life had decided to spit in her face. 

Though she moved through the bold routines she’d been doing for so long, Kasumi couldn’t land the moves. They felt foreign to her, and to her body, and she couldn’t possibly understand why that would be the case. She kept trying and trying, putting her all into making the routine stick, to capture that magic, that boldness that had always been a part of her.

Nothing she did worked.

As she made her way into the girl’s locker room, the feeling of futility towards what she was trying to accomplish brought to mind all the rumors she heard about herself this morning, and the memory of the emotional pain she went through. All of this compounded with the stress of her upcoming preliminary meet for the first gymnastics competition of the summer. And if she couldn’t even move properly, then...

Kasumi drew in a shuddering breath, bit down sharply on the inside of her cheek, squeezed her eyes shut, and did everything in her power to not break down and start crying on the spot.

* * *

Another school day, another set of rumors floating around, more whispers behind his back, and another piece of chalk thrown at Ren’s head by Ushimaru. _Such is the fabulous life of a Phantom Thief…_

Fortunately for him, the school day was finally done, and he could finally head home and rest up a bit. 

Unfortunately for him, whatever god was in power had decided to piss in his curry while they were at it, because it was currently pouring rain outside and Ren had forgotten his fucking umbrella. 

Ren witnessed the downpour from up on the roof — from under the overhang, of course. 

Pissed as he was, he couldn’t help but enjoy the rain. Days like these were good for staying inside and underneath the blankets. Definitely a good nap day. So it’d stand to reason that Ren would be annoyed that he still had work to do, if his furry passenger had anything to say about it.

“C’mon, Ren! We gotta go, we’ve got Mementos missions to take care of!” The previously mentioned furry passenger yowled from his place in Ren’s bag at his feet, tail sticking out and swishing back and forth. The not-cat clearly didn’t enjoy the rain, or taking his time, as much as Ren did.

He didn’t reply quite yet, too busy taking one last drag of his cigarette and listening to the ‘pitter-patter’ of the droplets falling on the roof and the school’s planters. Ren released the smoke from his lungs with a slow, drawn out exhale through his nose, the cigarette having finally been reduced to a near stub. With a flick, Ren sent the cigarette filter careening into the nearby garbage bin, the filter bouncing off the rim and into the trash. A chuckle left Ren’s lips, gave a little fist pump at the successful toss, and enjoyed the fruits of his labor towards furthering his skill with his hands.

The not-cat was less than impressed, letting out a huff. “Yeah, yeah, nice shot you show-off. Now can we please get going?” Morgana whined loudly as Ren came over and snatched a toothbrush and tube of toothpaste out of the bag that was the not-cat’s carrier. “I’m itching for a fight after how well we handled Madarame. Especially if it means diving deeper into Mementos and finding more of my memories.”

Ren, once satisfied that he’d properly handled his dental hygiene, spat the foamy toothpaste onto the rain-soaked rooftop, then rinsed with water from his vending machine bottle and spat that out too. “Alright, alright, you lil shit,” he snarkily replied and gently rubbed Morgana’s furry head, the supposed honest-to-God-human-turned-cat purring quietly in spite of himself. “And you say that I’m the impatient one.” 

“No, I said you’re the reckless one. Big difference between them, smart guy. Good thing you’ve got me to keep you in line, though.” Ren’s still not sure how Morgana manages to pull off a smug face when he’s in the body of a cat, but he’s able to do it somehow.

“Uh huh, I’m the one who needs to be kept in line. Sure,” there was nothing but sarcasm and doubt in Ren’s voice when he responded to Morgana as he picked up his school bag. With the bag secured, he headed down the staircase and made his way to the entranceway of the school and pointedly ignored every whisper he heard around him.

Ren stopped, though, when he saw a familiar head of red hair standing underneath the entrance’s overhang. Kasumi appeared to be fidgeting with her bag and glancing at the students passing her by. For once, she didn’t notice him, since he had taken up a spot outside her peripheral vision…

The memory of having watched that very same underclassman through his Third Eye as she made a poor attempt to sneak up on him, then demanded to know how Ren did it when she got caught, came unbidden to his mind. 

A smirk played at Ren’s lips as he walked towards her at a snail’s pace, his footsteps silent. Once he had silently stepped up behind Kasumi, he set a timer on his watch, and then he waited.

And waited.

And waited…

The whispers from the other students shifted from other topics to the two of them as Ren continued to stand silently behind Kasumi. He could only feel his grin widen as they not-so-subtly whispered about him. Ren even had to hold back some laughter when he heard one of them not-so-quietly say, “He’s just standing there...menacingly..,” as they walked by the two of them. 

Ren watched Kasumi’s head track the student that spoke up, her head tilted slightly. “Wait...who are they talking about?” Clearly she was talking to herself...but Ren couldn’t help but reveal his presence.

“Me, probably.”

Ren had to bite back his laugh as Kasumi squealed in fright, spun on her heel, and threw a shaky jab at Ren which he deflected easily. With her guard wide open, he took a step towards her, and used the same arm he guarded with to swiftly prod her on the forehead. 

His smirk widened when she only stumbled one step back, impressed by her self control, but had to adopt a far more stern expression when Kasumi glowered up at him. Ren made a show of stopping the timer, putting his free hand on his hip and glancing down at the stopped time. “I was standing there for a...minute and thirty seven seconds, had to announce myself, and then you barely guarded yourself after your punch.” 

He watched Kasumi’s hands balled up into fists at her sides, but unlike the last time he snuck up on her, she broke eye contact with him and fixed her gaze upon the floor. Ren caught sight of the trembling in her arms and could hear her erratic breathing, as though she was attempting to hold back…

_Hold back something I know all too well._

Ren heaved a heavy sigh and studied Kasumi’s face quickly. He could see the moisture in her watery auburn eyes, and knew he had to act fast before she started bawling. _The last thing I need is to make a girl cry in public. Or at all, really. Especially with my record..._ Ren shivered internally at the very thought. He brought his hand up, gently placed a finger on Kasumi’s forehead, and tilted her head with his finger until she was forced to look at him again. The motion of her head dragged a whine from her lips, but otherwise she remained quietly annoyed, eyebrows furrowed in shaky defiance.

“However,” Ren started, which made Kasumi blink and tilt her head quizzically, “the fact that you threw a punch at me at all, after only having learned to defend yourself a week ago, is still praiseworthy.” He brought his hand up and hesitated momentarily to wait for consent. When he received it via a nod, Ren gently placed his hand on Kasumi’s shoulder squeezed lightly, and let his hand drop back to his side. “You did good, Kasumi.”

Kasumi gazed up at him, blinked once, twice...then she gave Ren a not-quite half smile and seemed to pause, hesitant to even show her appreciation. Even with her delay, she appeared to have made up her mind and gave him a small bow. “Thank you, Ren-senpai. I appreciate the kind words...” 

To Ren, the thanks sounded hollow, done out of a force of habit rather than out of genuine thankfulness. It worried him, truth be told. He was a creature of habits, routines, and plans, so to have his daily life disrupted, even in an admittedly small way such as this, bothered him to no end.

_I suppose I’ll just have to cheer her up to correct this, then. Probably best to do it on the walk to the station._

“Well, Kasumi, the rain’s not gonna let up anytime soon, so we better get goin’ now.” 

“I agree, but...Senpai, where’s your umbrella?”

Ren cringed slightly, bringing a hand up to muss with a few strands of his hair. “Yeah, I uh...I forgot mine.” That was when he noticed something important missing from Kasumi as well. “You forget yours too?”

“Mmhm.” Whenever the two of them interacted, the redhead usually regarded him with either cheeky defiance when Ren tried to get her to stop calling him Senpai, or a beaming smile when they actually got along. So for him to see her just stare at the ground, downcast like this…

Ren was broken from his thoughts by the wiggling in his school bag, and a furry head popping up from the open part of the zipper.

“Y’know, I had a feeling something like this would happen, Ren.” Morgana gave a quiet, self-satisfied laugh, then dove his head back into the bag. When he came back out, he held the handle of a collapsible umbrella gingerly between his teeth.

Ren took the umbrella from the not-cat and scratched under Morgana’s chin with his finger. “What a considerate kitty,” he murmured thankfully, and finished up by rubbing the back of his hand atop Morgana’s head. “Thanks, bud.”

Morgana’s only replies were to purr quietly and give a half-baked complaint of “Not a cat..,” before he settled back into the bag, presumably to take another nap.

Turning his attention back to Kasumi, Ren saw that she was stretching her legs lightly. Like she was prepping to run.

“Well...See you around, Ren-senpai. I'll get to the station faster if I don't have to worry about keeping pace with someone.” She appeared to have prepared herself enough, her heel dug into the ground beneath her, her face a look of determination. Kasumi took a running step forward...and squeaked in surprise when Ren caught her by the waist with one arm, held her aloft, and kept her from her sprint. “S-Senpai! What are you—?”

“I’m not letting you run through the rain so you can catch pneumonia, dammit,” Ren snapped at her as he set Kasumi down on her feet, and waited for what he knew was coming.

He certainly didn’t have to wait long. Kasumi spun on her heel to glare up at him, her hands on her hips. “That doesn’t mean you just grab someone by the waist,” Kasumi berated him. “Not only was that rude, it was incredibly disrespectful, Senpai. And...” One of her hands shifted from her hip to grasp her other arm, a dispirited look on her face as she looked down, her voice quiet. “And I...I thought you...respected me…”

Ren sucked a breath in through his teeth, his hand going to the back of his neck as he glanced away from her. He could handle anger, could handle disappointment even, but this?

_Shit. I fucked up._

“I do, Kasumi, I do. I just..,” Ren paused, trying to find the right words. “I just thought you’d appreciate it if you knew all the options available to you, before you went and soaked to the bone.” He held up the collapsible umbrella to punctuate his point.

Kasumi’s gaze flit over to the umbrella, realization dawning on her face. “B-but you said—.”

“Yeah, well…” Ren gently scratched the back of his neck as he looked away in embarrassment. “Seems past-Ren is better at planning than present-Ren is at remembering,” he said — pointedly ignoring the quiet laughter that came from his bag — as he hit the button for the umbrella and let it extend. “I know you’re upset with me, but I was serious when I said I didn’t want you getting sick, so..,” Ren undid the velcro strap holding the umbrella together, allowing it to fold out, locking it in place, then held it over his head. “Walk with me?”

Kasumi stared at the umbrella for a few seconds before looking away. “I...wouldn’t mind not getting wet, but…”

When Ren saw Kasumi giving a furtive glance at the passing students, their unsubtle whispers came to the forefront of his hearing. The comments, the questions, the insults…he could practically feel his blood begin to boil and actually felt a growl build up in his throat. He bit the inside of his cheek, leaned closer to Kasumi and quietly whispered, “I know a way around all the foot traffic, if you don’t mind taking a bit longer to get to the station.”

Kasumi snapped her eyes to him at the suggestion as he pulled away. It seemed to take her a moment to think about, but she set her jaw and gave him a single nod.

With her assent, Ren adjusted the grip he had on his bag, held the umbrella above the two of them, and led Kasumi down one of the side alleys, away from all the other students.

* * *

The pitter-patter of the rain upon concrete and the umbrella made up the aural backdrop to Kasumi and Senpai’s walk to the Aoyama-Itchome station, the two of them in an uneasy silence as they went. Senpai’s face was inscrutable whenever she peeked over at him, and besides, she had her own quiet contemplation to deal with.

She couldn’t help but feel guilty about the way she admonished Senpai...the way he looked so ashamed when she told him off, it made Kasumi feel completely ungrateful to him. _He was only trying to help, right? Even if he was being inappropriate, I shouldn’t scold my only friend at Shujin like that..._

Kasumi made up her mind. She was going to apologize to Senpai for how she chastised him. All she needed to do was work up the courage, which certainly wasn’t easy, what with the apprehension she felt at the very thought of bringing it up.

But she had to do it. The last thing she wanted was to lose a friend over something like this. Having steeled her nerves, Kasumi sucked in a breath and turned to her Senpai.

“Ren-senpai—.” “Kasumi, I—.”

The two of them stopped and looked at each other for a moment, before they both let out a quiet snicker. When his quiet laughter subsided, Senpai looked down at Kasumi expectantly. “You go first, Kasumi.”

“No no, you go first Sen—,” she started, but Senpai cut her off.

“We’re not doing this back and forth crap, Kasumi. I want to hear what you have to say. Go first.” 

The sharp tone he gave her cast out any thought of rebuttal, and Kasumi turned her gaze away as she thought on her words carefully. When she was sure she had the right words, she directed her attention back to Senpai, who stared at her with an eyebrow quizzically raised.

“Ren-senpai, I’m sorry for the way I treated you.” Kasumi couldn’t hold her gaze with his for long, looking down to stare at her feet. “You were just trying to help and I—”

Ren-senpai held his hand up as he interrupted her, “Stop, hold on Kasumi.” 

She looked back up at Senpai for a moment, locking eyes with him, then glared at him, annoyed that he kept interrupting her. It seemed the look she was giving him was stern enough, because it had him looking away and fiddling with a lock of hair. _At least he has the decency to look sheepish about it…_

It took him a moment, but Senpai turned his gaze back to her and, once he received her nod of consent, gently placed his hand on her shoulder. “Kasumi, you have nothing to apologize for. I’m the one who was at fault, not you.” She went to stop him, to tell him that it was alright, that it wasn’t his fault, but Senpai squeezed her shoulder lightly. “No, don’t tell me it wasn’t my fault, cause it was.”

Senpai pursed his lips, eyebrows furrowed in thought. “I have a problem with...thinking about my actions.” He let out a quiet breath, lifted his hand from her shoulder and ran it through his messy raven locks as his eyes left hers. “I tend to plan ahead for a lot of things, sometimes days in advance. But when it comes to being in the moment, thinking in the moment...I just sort of…‘do’, y’know? I don’t think about what I’m doing or how I’m doing it, I just commit.”

Senpai inhaled then exhaled audibly as his hand went back to her shoulder. “So, I did what I believed was best at the time to make you stop, and ignored your comfort and your feelings on the matter. Even if I had the best intentions, that’s not an excuse.” His stormy gray eyes met hers again, his seriousness and regret evident in his slanted brows. “I’m sincerely sorry, Kasumi, and I hope you forgive me for disrespecting your boundaries.”

Kasumi was hanging onto Senpai’s every word, her eyes lighting up, feeling a beaming smile spread on her face upon hearing the apology. She wanted to thank him for his kind words and for the honesty he showed, for cheering her up after what turned out to be a horrid day.

_I want to thank him, buuut…_

The smile became a grin as she leaned toward Senpai slightly. Her hand quickly shot out and tapped him on the forehead, much in the same way he would frequently do to her, which caused the older boy to jerk back, release her shoulder, and blink rapidly. “Y’know, Senpai, that’s definitely not how a delinquent would act,” Kasumi cheekily teased him as a giggle bubbled up past her lips.

...But she couldn’t help but get a bit of her own ‘bullying’ in. _It’s not like he hasn’t teased me like this himself._

Senpai, for his part, visibly winced and let out an exasperated groan. “C’mon, Kasumi…” He definitely pretended to sound annoyed, but she caught that smirk of his through the cracks of his facade.

Kasumi gave her Senpai one of her big, bright smiles that she only gets when she’s super happy, like when she lands a perfect routine. “Sorry Senpai, but you started it, remember?” She clasped her hands in front of her and caught his gaze with her own. “I truly appreciate and accept the apology, Senpai. And thank you for your concern for me earlier...oh, and for letting me join you.”

“It’s been a rather…” A drawn out sigh left her lips, and her hand came up to rest her cheek upon it, her gaze cast to the side. “A rather rough day today, especially with prelims coming up. I really didn’t need the added stress of possibly getting sick.”

Ren-senpai let out a quiet hum, shrugged his shoulder to shift his bag a bit. “You had a rough day?” There was genuine concern that glimmered in his eyes when she glanced at him. The concern became mischief right before Kasumi’s eyes as he laid his hand upon his bag. “Y’know, I’ve got something that could cheer you up, I’m sure of it.” That got Kasumi’s attention, but she grew concerned when Ren-senpai dropped the smile, his expression gravely serious. “But you have to swear to me, Kasumi, that you will never reveal what I’m about to show you.”

The seemingly genuine severity of his words and tone made Kasumi doubt herself momentarily. _Is he actually serious, or is he being facetious? I can never tell with this boy…_ “A-ah, yes, of course Senpai. Your secret is safe with me, I promise.”

“Good.” That was the only response he gave as Ren-senpai stared her right in the eye as his hand moved ever so slowly to unzip his bag.

Her gaze drifted down to his moving hand as the bag opened and her creeping doubts resurfaced.

_What could it be?_

A knife. Some kind of prank. Drugs. A gun. As ridiculous as the ideas were, it was one of those that Kasumi was expecting to come out of the schoolbag.

What she didn’t expect, however, was to hear a startled ‘Mreow?!’ come from the bag as Senpai pulled a black and white tuxedo cat with brilliant blue eyes out from the schoolbag. The sight of the shocked look on the cat’s face, coupled with the fact that Senpai had just pulled a cat, of all things, out of his bag, had Kasumi in a fit of giggles at the utter ridiculousness of the situation.

The final nail in her coffin, however, was when Kasumi, as she struggled to see through the tears in her eyes, looked up at Senpai, who had somehow managed to maintain that deadly serious look on his face, and heard him say, “Well, I guess the cat’s outta the bag now, huh?”

That single comment turned Kasumi’s hysterical giggles into full on convulsive laughter, with Senpai joining her as his facade finally broke. It took a good few minutes for her to stop laughing, and by the sound of it, Senpai was coming down from his laughter high as well. Her eyes fell on the cat still sitting in the bag with its head poking out, looking up at Senpai with its eyes narrowed down to dangerous slits.

Having finally caught her breath, she tentatively reached out with her hand and placed it upon the cat’s head. The cat flinched slightly at her touch, but it seemed to realize that Kasumi was friendly when she started to scratch behind its ears. A loud purr vibrated in its throat as it pressed its head against her hand.

“Aww, what an adorable kitty,” Kasumi cooed, giving the black cat a scratch under the chin and watched its eyes close, clearly pleased with the attention, if the purring meow was anything to go by. “What's their name, Ren-senpai?”

Ren-senpai slid his hand across the black cat’s side and began to scratch it’s side and belly, and Kasumi watched the cat just flop against him. “Morgana is his name, and he is most certainly a good kitty.” She heard him mumble quietly, but he didn’t say it loud enough for her to catch, except for the word...simp? _You know what, I’m not going to worry about it, I have a cat to pet._

With a quiet giggle and a big smile on her face, Kasumi looked back up at Ren-senpai, her hand never leaving Morgana’s head. “Thank you for this, Senpai. I feel so much better, thanks to you.” She did a little fist pump with her free hand, and could feel the confident and excited grin on her face. “In fact, I feel like I could take on anything, even the prelims!”

“Prelims...for gymnastics, right?” Ren-senpai asked with a tilt of his head.

“Yeah, that’s right. Two huge competitions are coming up — one at the beginning of summer, and one near the end.” Her face scrunched up in thought. “If I’m to participate in the prelims, I have to be selected as my club’s representative…and there’s a qualifier meet to determine who the rep will be.” Kasumi looked down at Morgana as though he had the answers to the questions she couldn’t voice, and the cat responded by pushing his head into her hand even harder. Another giggle left her lips, and she turned her attention back to Ren-senpai. “It’s my dream to compete in gymnastics on the global level. So to do that, I have to start by being selected as the rep.” Kasumi took a moment to breathe, doing her best to not give in to her anxiety — Morgana’s purring certainly helped with that. “And to do that, I plan on maintaining a strict training regimen with my coach.”

“Well, with that much dedication, I don’t doubt you’ll make your dream come true, Kasumi,” Ren-senpai said with a smirk. “That said, it doesn’t hurt to hedge your bets, too. Just know that I—,” He stops a moment to look down at the cat in his bag, and his smirk widened as he lifted the cat slightly. “I mean, we’ll be cheering you on.”

Kasumi beamed at Ren-senpai when she heard that comment, then reached over to pet Morgana with both hands. “I’d be practically invincible if I had you two cheering me on.”

Morgana let out a purring meow, and practically nuzzled his face into Kasumi’s hands, and seemed to be happy with the praise he just received. Senpai simply laughed quietly, shaking his head at the cat. “We should probably get going, Kasumi. We’ve been standing here for a bit.”

“Oh my gosh,” Kasumi gasped as the realization struck her, “I have practice soon! C’mon, Senpai, let's get going!”

“Heh. Only if you can keep up, Kasumi,” Senpai taunted with that familiar grin on his face.

And so the two of them took off at a jogging pace, making sure to be mindful of the puddles and the slick concrete.

* * *

It didn’t take the two of them long to make it to the Aoyama station, especially after they turned it into a competition between the two of them. Ren shook his umbrella of the raindrops that still clung to it, and turned to Kasumi as she gave a little cheer. “I’m telling you, Kasumi, it was a tie.”

“Nuh uh, Ren-senpai, I definitely won. You just don’t want to admit it,” Kasumi taunted, that beaming smile of hers was still on her face.

All he could do was roll his eyes, allowing her the ‘victory’ as he felt the grin that tugged at his lips. _God damn, that cheerfulness of hers is infectious._

“That said, Ren-senpai, I think I’ll be okay from here on.” She adjusted the school bag she had on her shoulder, then clasped her hands together in front of her hips. He didn’t think Kasumi’s smile could get wider or brighter, but somehow she managed it. “I can’t thank you or Morgana enough for today. I swear I’ll return the favor some—.”

“Hey, isn’t that Yoshizawa?” Ren’s ear caught the voice of a rather surly and unsubtle male Shujin student who spoke up somewhere behind him. The tone of voice from the student had Ren on edge, as he had a feeling he knew what was coming. His eyes darted over to where the two stood, just at the very corner of his vision.

The next voice he heard was decidedly feminine, and no less unscrupulous. “You mean the honors gymnast.” The student none too quietly scoffed, “She gets the VIP treatment at school and a boyfriend to escort her around?”

Ren saw slight movement at the other edge of his sight and shifted his gaze over to Kasumi, who did not look like she took the blatant gossip very well. Her arms were drawn in, hands clasped to her biceps, head down and eyes focused on the ground, as though she wanted to shut out the whole world. 

The sight of it was too familiar to Ren. Far too familiar and hit far too close to home.

An unbidden growl rumbled in Joker’s throat as he turned, shifted his stance slightly, and fixed his furious gaze upon the two gossiping students.

“Miss Special Snowflake sure is livin’ on—.” 

“H-hey, wait a minute, isn’t that—.”

Their conversation ground to a halt as soon as they locked eyes on Joker’s death glare and the two students visibly paled at the sight. He couldn’t help but smirk viciously at their terror, and took a step forward towards them.

Only to be stopped, his arm held back by hands on his bicep and forearm. 

Joker’s eyes snapped to the offending hands and practically snarled his displeasure, and came face to face with the startled visage of Kasumi staring up at him. She looked...afraid. Scared. Of him. Of course she’d be scared of him, he was practically a feral animal right now. It's what he would expect from anyone sensible. Still, he couldn’t help but soften up a bit when he looked at her.

That’s when she took the opportunity to steel herself, Kasumi’s hands tightened on his compression sleeve, her brows furrowed in determination. “Senpai, stop. Do you remember what you taught me about the first rule of Krav Maga?”

He knew the rule, of course he knew the fucking rule. But Joker’s a hypocrite, the insults toward his friend had his blood at the boiling point, and he couldn’t help but remember those fateful words Arsene spoke to him when he went through his Awakening.

_“Kill them however you want! Run wild to your heart’s content!”_

But this wasn’t the Metaverse, and these aren’t Shadows. They are students, terrified students, of the real world, and his friend is here trying to keep him from doing something unbelievably stupid. He needed to reign in his hate and save it for those who genuinely deserved it.

With a shaky inhale and exhale, Joker let go of his rage. With another, he calmed his shaking body. And with a third, Ren finally replied to Kasumi.

“Try to talk them down first.”

Ren could hear the two students scuttle away as quick as they could, but he was not focused on them right now. He was much more focused on the redheaded friend who had just witnessed something incredibly _ugly_ about him. But before he could speak up, Kasumi beat him to it.

“The same thing happens in class too...students gossiping, I mean. People are wary of me, just because I’m an honors student. Shujin’s faculty are expecting strong results in the upcoming competitions, too, so the teachers tend to not call on me.” She sighed, shaking her head sadly. “They even told me I didn’t have to participate in the cleanup event…but I just don’t like getting special treatment. I mean, I also don’t like the rumors but—.”

Kasumi was interrupted by her phone buzzing and ringing, which prompted her to quickly pull it out and check. “Oh...excuse me, my father’s calling.” With a quick swipe of her thumb, she answered, “Hello, Dad?...What was that? Sorry, my phone’s been—.”

A pair of footsteps caught Ren’s attention, as they had stopped some distance behind him, and he could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He tuned out of Kasumi’s conversation, his vision turned grayscale, and his Third Eye opened. As he focused behind himself, he could see someone he wasn’t terribly pleased to see: that slimy, middle aged man, Junichiro Okamura, if he remembered correctly, from about a week ago. His posture, his attitude, however, was markedly changed — now he looked downright nervous, constantly glancing to the sides, but focusing his attention on the two of them. The man seemed to finally build up the courage to walk over to them, and Ren felt himself tense. He stopped his concentration on Third Eye just as Kasumi quietly gasped, likely having seen the man’s approach.

“U-um...excuse me..,” the middle aged man spoke first as he approached, and his footfalls fell just short of a meter behind Ren. 

Kasumi kept moving her gaze back and forth between himself and Okamura, seeming to make herself smaller, likely in a vain hope at going unnoticed. “S-senpai, it’s—.”

“I know, Kasumi.” Her expression was one of surprise, but Ren only smiled his encouragement, “What’s the first rule again?” He turned his body to Okamura, arms crossed, but kept his focus on Kasumi and hoped she took the hint.

Her eyes widened, but she appeared to have caught his meaning when she nodded her head. While she certainly didn’t look excited at the prospect, Kasumi nevertheless took her place at Ren’s side to talk to Okamura. “Hello again, sir.” Her tone of voice held none of her usual pleasantry or optimism. In fact, it was disconcertingly neutral. 

“Y-yes...hello. I was hoping I could just...take a moment of your t-time.” Unlike a week ago, Okamura’s attitude had none of the disgusting sleaziness to it. In fact, he seemed practically meek by comparison.

_He’d fuckin’ better be after I beat his Shadow into Mementos’ subway tiles._ Ren had to force down the dark smirk that threatened to crack his neutral facade.

Kasumi nodded, but didn’t speak any further, as she seemed to be content to simply let Okamura speak for himself. 

When all the man received was the silent treatment, he continued, “I-I was hoping I could meet you...I just…” And against all logic, Okamura bowed deeply to the two of them. “I just wished to apologize for my behavior a week ago. I’m deeply sorry and ashamed of what I did, for trying to force you to come with me, and I just wished for you to know that.”

Kasumi appeared taken aback by what he said, but recovered quickly, cleared her throat, gave a short, small bow of her own, spared a short glance at Ren, and crossed her arms over her chest. “I accept your apology, sir, on the condition that you don’t do something like that to anyone else again.”

“Y-yes!” he exclaimed, nodding his head quickly. “Yes, of course, I promise I won’t do anything like that again.” Okamura’s eyes drifted over to Ren, and Ren could see the man’s nervousness increase tenfold. “E-,” he stopped and gulped quietly, “...ever again.”

Ren’s hand slowly drifted and drew an ‘X’ across his heart with his finger. “Cross your heart and hope to _die_?” His face might have been a mask of neutrality, but Ren couldn’t stop the quiet snarl that arose in his throat. Nor could he ignore the gentle prod of Kasumi’s elbow into his side, but he wouldn’t let it show on his face.

Okamura’s face blanched at the audible growl from Ren. The man gave a short, panicked bow to Kasumi and quickly left, his pace just short of a jog.

Kasumi dropped her neutral facade with a stressed, but relieved groan, and he watched her bring her hands up to run them down her face. “Ugh...that went about as well as I could’ve expected, but was still stressful…” Her hands stopped their trek down her face, her auburn red eyes narrowed at Ren, and the look she gave him had a bead of sweat slowly drip down the back of his neck. “Senpai...you were the only one who could have possibly known about that man. What did you do?”

_Oh shit._ He had to think of a lie. Or at least, a half-truth.

Morgana had the exact same thought, hissing quietly from Ren’s bag. “Think of a lie! Quick!”

“Oh- Uh- Well..,” Ren toyed with a loose lock of hair and looked away from Kasumi’s piercing gaze. “So...after the uh...the Kamo-shithead thing-,” he started, heard a quiet snort from Kasumi, and smirked. “I found out about this...Phantom Thief Aficionado Website. It seems the Phantom Thieves take requests, so I figured, ‘well, got nothin’ to lose,’ and put that guy’s name in and what he did.” Ren scratched the back of his neck and hoped it would help sell the lie. “I didn’t actually think they’d go and...what was it, ‘change his heart?’”  
  


Looking back at Kasumi, Ren could see she was still giving him a searching look, as though she were trying to find any hint he was lying or not. 

With a slow exhale through her nose, she crossed her arms again and stared him down. “You aren’t lying to me, are you Ren-senpai? You didn’t...I don’t know, threaten the man after last week?”

“...Well—.”

“Senpai!”

“Easy, easy,” Ren placated and held his hands up at shoulder height in surrender. “Admittedly, I definitely thought about something of the sort if the guy tried anything.” _Although I likely would have done much worse than just threaten him._ “But since it never came to it, we don’t have to worry about it.”

Kasumi’s narrowed eyes stayed locked onto Ren in suspicion, until she finally closed them and shook her head. “What am I going to do with you, Senpai?”

“Keep me around cause it keeps all the assholes away,” Ren replied to her rhetorical question with a smirk. He laughed when she let out another sigh, then cleared his throat when he remembered when she took a phone call from her father before Okamura interrupted them. “What was the call from your father about?”

“Hm?...Oh!” She still seemed a tad distracted by what had transpired, “He was calling to ask if I needed a ride, since it’s raining.” Kasumi shook her head with a smile. “A bit overprotective, don’t you think?”

Ren’s eyes searched her face for any sign of falsehoods, and found none. His lips curved into a genuine smile, and he shook his head in return. “It sounds to me like you’ve got a great—”

Ceaseless, suffocating darkness.

“...dad,” Ren managed to choke out, and banished the memory as quickly as he could.

“S-Senpai? Are you okay?” There was no mistaking the concern that was plain on Kasumi’s face as she stepped closer to him.

He instinctively took a step back and cleared his throat, “Y-yeah, I’m fine, Kasumi. Promise.” Lying through one’s teeth certainly isn’t good by any stretch of the imagination, but that was one conversation Ren was not ready for in the slightest. “Besides, don’t you have gymnastics practice to get to?”

Kasumi’s worry couldn’t be more obvious, from the furrowed eyebrows to her bit lip, and Ren knew he had to assuage whatever fears she had somehow. He gently placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly. “I’m okay. Honestly. But I’d definitely feel bad if you were late to practice because of me.”

She pouted at that, “If you’re sure, Senpai...then I won’t push further.” Kasumi put on a smile and took a few steps back. “Thanks so much for today...honestly,” she said, her smile growing a bit wider, “I wasn’t in the best place, mentally, but you helped me out of that.” She gave a polite bow and a nod. “See you when I see you, Senpai.” And with that said and done, Kasumi took her leave, though she did look back with a small wave.

Ren returned the wave and watched her go, a small smile on his lips.

That smile lasted all of five seconds, when he yelped after feeling familiar claws dig into his chest. Ren stared down at Morgana, who stared up at him with eyes narrowed to slits and a murderous intent.

“Never. And I mean, never ever, use me for a pun ever again. Got it, attic boy?” Morgana growled and clenched his paws to dig his claws a bit deeper for emphasis.

A quiet laugh left Ren’s lips as he shook his head, took Morgana’s paws off of himself, and pat Morgana gently. “Didn’t know you hated puns that much. Sorry, bud.”

Morgana let out a huff at the pats he received, but didn’t complain about it either. In fact, his face was rather thoughtful at the moment. 

“Ren, are people really that terrible?”

Ren thought, for a moment, about his experiences, on the things he’s seen and the things he’s done. “...Yeah. People suck, Morgana.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do genuinely apologize for not getting this out at least three weeks ago. Don't get me wrong, I ain't burnt out on P5R or Persona by any stretch of the imagination, but I had a blackout for a week starting on the 5th, so that kinda kill my mood to write for a while. Also bridging my writing with P5's writing is a pain in the ass.
> 
> Now for some ~~shout outs~~ sacrifices to the ShuSumi Gods. Obviously, spoilers for P5R in literally all these:
> 
> My Beta-Reader Gru and his fic [Echo of the Forgotten](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24981250/chapters/60478747).  
> Right and their fic [A Lifelong Fan in Me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25433350).  
> Dream_Maiden with [ Persona 5: The Toll of Freedom](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25174963).  
> VitaminLuce with [Wistful](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24296992).  
> And last but not least, written by Mush and Right is [Phantom Memories](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26003371)


	6. An Ominous Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [...](https://youtu.be/L1L7KQdtR8o)

**??/??.**

Another time, another place...

Some days are boring. Some people come in with appointments and go about their day. 

Some days are eventful. Some people come in without appointments and argue with the receptionist until security firmly asks them to leave.

Then, there are days like today.

The receptionist thought it would be a boring day. Barely anyone came into the building, he had finished all his work, and he was minutes away from the end of his shift.

Unfortunately for him, that wouldn’t be the case.

It was hard for the receptionist, sometimes, to sit at a desk directly across from the front of the building. The glass was occasionally difficult to see through, the glare of the sunlight at just the right time of day made it blinding to try and look through. And, wouldn’t you know it, it was that time of day, and the receptionist had to squint his eyes just to try and see who it was that just came through the doorway.

The receptionist immediately went on alert, though he did his best not to show it, and subtly ran his hand over the ‘security alert’ button under his desk. After all, what else do you do when someone six feet tall with black, scalloped pauldrons, a featureless black mask, and a red cloak that covers their entire body walks into the building and right towards you? The person looked like they were out of some kind of fantasy game or something, so of course the receptionist called security.

The receptionist did his best to put a customer service smile on his face as the masked figure approached and stopped in front of his desk. He could hear a quiet murmuring from the other people in the lobby, but he didn’t have time to hear what they were saying, he had to pay attention to the threat in front of him..

“Hello, sir, would it be possible for you to remove the helmet? I’m not sure if there’s a convention or anything going on, but this certainly isn’t a hotel, and we need to know who’s walking around.”

...No response from the masked figure. They only looked down at him, body betraying no emotion at all. He had to get firmer with them, but security was already on the way. If all else fails, he could leave it to them.

“Sir, if you aren’t going to take off the headwear or even reply, I’m going to have to insist that you leave.”

Still no response from them. The receptionist side eyes the oncoming guard, who stops a few feet away from the now designated intruder. The guard had a hand on his holstered handgun, a very clear threat to the masked person, even if they didn’t acknowledge it. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to come with me so I may escort you off the premis—.”

The receptionist didn’t understand what had just happened. One second, they were standing in front of the desk, and the next they were in front of the guard, their gauntleted hand that appeared to end in claws squeezing the man’s throat so tightly that not a sound could escape his mouth. The Figure’s had an ironclad grip on the guard’s hand, as the man had attempted to draw his firearm. The receptionist could see the Figure’s outfit underneath the cloak, and the armor they wore was just as dark and wickedly designed as the pauldrons atop their shoulders.

There was a single gunshot from somewhere behind the receptionist, and the screams began. He flinched, confused, because one gunshot clearly wouldn’t suffice in this situation. Slowly turning his head, the receptionist laid eyes on the other guard who had been approaching, the woman laying motionless on the ground as the blood started pooling around her head, the gun on the ground near her.

He couldn’t comprehend it, and turned his head back to the Figure and hoped in vain for some kind of rational explanation.

With excruciating slowness, the Masked Figure continued to squeeze the guard’s hand until his bones broke, his skin tore, and blood poured from his now ruined stump. The man’s face was contorted in agony, but still no sound could escape the figure’s grip on his throat.

“Where is Christian Sanford?”

Those were the first words the Masked Figure—a deep, masucline voice, like a rumble of thunder—had spoken. They were asking for his boss? They likely intended to kill the man, but why? For what purpose could—.

The Masked Figure seemed to have decided that the receptionist took too long to answer. With a thunderous crash, the Masked Figure brought the security guard down onto the receptionist’s desk, shattering the computer monitor, breaking the desk in half, and sending splinters and shards everywhere.

He watched as the guard looked up at him, wide eyed in pain. The guard made a sputtering sound, sending bloodied spittle onto the receptionist, and went still.

“Where. Is. Christian. Sanford?” The question was spoken as though they were restraining themself, and for all the receptionist knew, they were.

The receptionist quite literally shook with terror when he looked up, as the Masked Figure towered over him. His mouth moved but no words formed, no sound was made. He could hear the screaming from behind him as the other people in the lobby began running for their lives, but it was like the sound came across from a great distance. There was only him, and the Figure.

The Masked Figure didn’t seem to like how they hadn’t received an answer, judging by the way they oh-so-slowly reached for the receptionist.

“T-t-t-top floor!” The receptionist finally shouted while he stuttered the words and held his hands above his head. “H-h-h-h-he’s on th-the top f-floor, b-b-but there’s a sp-special elevator that onl-ly executives can take and…” The terrible reality of the situation began to set in for him, as tears began forming in his eyes. “P-p-p-please please please, oh god, please don’t kill me!” He could feel the tears streaming down his face, but he didn’t care, he couldn’t care, he just didn’t want to die, so if that meant looking and sounding as pathetic as possible, he’d do it.

The Masked Figure slowly held their hand up, middle finger held back by the thumb, in a clear flicking gesture. They held their hand like that for a moment, then tilted their head downward, as though to consider it. 

With a terrible slowness, they lowered their hand back into their cloak, stepped past the shattered desk, the broken body, and the quivering receptionist, and strode purposefully towards the elevators.

The receptionist took a moment to just sit there and stare vacantly at the broken body on his broken desk.

Another moment.

Then got out from behind the desk and sprinted out the door without a backwards glance.

* * *

The Armored One stood in front of the elevators for a moment, the heavy steel doors gleaming in the artificial light. They reached forward, placed their hands against the metal, and slowly bore down. The steel let out a screech from buckling under the Armored One’s grip. With the sound of screaming metal, they tore the door from its frame, destroying the elevator frame in the process, and threw the now worthless doors aside.

With a gust of wind that swirled around them, they lifted off their feet and launched themself into the elevator shaft. The numbers denoting the floors flew past them, as did the other elevators, as they made their way up to the top floor available in this particular shaft.

There was a loud, metallic ‘clang’, as one of the elevators above them came undone from its cable, the heavy steel box barreling down at the Armored One. In response, they lifted one hand, brought it to the other side of their body, and swung in a backhanded motion. 

The elevator crashed into the side of the shaft in an explosive cacophony of crushed metal and stone, one side of the disconnected elevator caved in from the force of their deflection. Another burst of wind sent the Armored One rocketing toward the offending party, a security guard up in the elevator shaft who was the one who detached the now-destroyed elevator from the cable.

The unlucky guard caught sight of them and scrambled, far too late, to climb down the ladder and get out of the shaft through the elevator door at the top. With a bone-crushing slam, the Armored One pinned the guard to the ceiling of the elevator shaft by the neck. With a gout of blood and a sickening ‘snap’, the guard’s head rolled out of their grasp and dropped into the darkness, and the headless body followed suit.

Floating down into the open elevator doorway, the Armored One was met with another force of personnel. Unlike the guards in the lobby, these seemed to actually be militarized, with assault rifles, body armor, and even some in riot gear. The soldiers gave no warning, simply opening fire on the blood-and-gore covered individual before them.

The gunfire lasted for all the length of a trigger pull.

Silence reigned in the corridor that led to the upper floors. The quiet thuds echoed loudly off the walls, as the Armored One passed by the dead and the dying, their armor, helmets, and riot shields tattered and riddled with holes. Blood pooled on the ground where they fell, and the Armored One stalked through it as their boots and cloak trailed crimson behind them.

They stopped.

With a slow, purposeful motion, the Armored One turned their head to the security camera that looked down at them.

* * *

Christian Sanford watched the Intruder stop, covered in the blood of one of his security teams, in full view of the security camera. They slowly turned, and seemed to look straight at the camera. A chill ran through Sanford’s spine, and even though he knew it was impossible, it still felt like that bastard’s eyes were on him. Like they saw right through the camera and at him.

Then the camera feed went out.

_So they’ve got one of_ those, _huh?_

Sanford turned to his chief of operations as the woman typed furiously away at her tablet. “Son of a bitch...Where are the rest of our guards? We need that asshole stopped, now!”

“I’m working on it, sir, but half of our security is still on the floor below ours, while the other half was transferred or were already stationed on our floor.”

He shook his head, reached into one of his desk’s drawers, and withdrew his trump card. “Make sure to let them all know to stop using their firearms and use stun batons and tasers.” Sanford saw the COO give him a curious look, but he only kept going. “I have a feeling I know why guns aren’t working on that monster, and if I’m right, we need to get out of here, ASAP.”

“V-very well, sir. Should I tell the pilot to prep the helicopter?”

Sanford turns his eyes to the ‘trump card’ in his hands, lips downturned into a determined scowl. “Yes. And tell the pilot he’s got two minutes.”

* * *

The Armored One continued their stride through the hallways and ignored any employees that fled from their presence. The blood from the guards still dripped from their form, their cloak dragged behind them with the additional weight, clawed gauntlets slick with gore. Those same claws were gouging deep, bloody gashes into the wall they stalked past. 

“Stop!” The yell that announced more security drew the Armored One’s attention, and they finally deigned to notice the thirty three security guards gathering at the end of the hallway. Behind them was the elevator up to the highest levels and the rooftop of the skyscraper. 

Another security guard, likely a proxy for the one in charge, stood in the back. “This is as far as you’re gonna go, pal,” he stated, his stun baton sparking loudly. “I don’t know what your problem is with Mr. Sanford, but I can’t say that I care. Boss says you’re not allowed up, so you’re not going up.”

They tilted their head slightly, but whether it was in curiosity or confusion, no one could tell. There was a loud crack from the wall and a screech of shrieking metal as the Armored One tore one of the support beams out of the wall. They then began their stride towards the guards, dragging the support beam like an oversized club behind them.

They were thirty meters away from the guards and slowly closing in.

There was a stutter from one of the security guards towards the front of the group. “U-uh, sir...won’t that support beam be a problem? I-if they can actually swing that—.”

“You’ve all got stun batons,” came the barking reply, “just taze the shit outta him before he swings!”

They were twenty meters away now, approaching with the same agonizing slowness.

“C’mon, there’s thirty of us and one of them, stop being a bunch of fucking cowards and take them down alrea—!”

In the middle of the leader’s less-than-inspiring speech, the Armored One vanished, without any indication for where they had gone. One moment they were there, and the next they were not. 

Dread bore a hole into the squad leader’s heart, and he managed to turn his head fast enough to witness his own death hit him.

With a nauseating crunch, the leader was struck by the Armored One’s heavy handed swing. The remnants of his body splattered against the nearby wall in much the same way a fly would be swat out of the air. The Armored One looked on at the body, tilted their head again, then turned their attention to the other thirty two security personnel, who all experienced various degrees of awe, disgust, shock, and most importantly, fear.

They took a single step towards the guards…

...And watched the nearest one hurriedly drop his baton and raise his hands into the air with a panicked “I surrender!” The Armored One turned their gaze to the rest of the guards and witnessed the rest of them do the same, thirty two pairs of hands raised above their heads. 

Slowly, the Armored One held up a hand and pointed the way they had come in from. They held the gesture for a moment, until understanding bloomed in a few of the guards. Those few who understood cautiously walked backwards, hands still up and still faced toward the Armored One. The rest of the guards finally caught on to what they were doing and went with their example, though some opted instead to sprint directly for the exits.

The Armored One faced them for another moment, then turned, tossed the support beam to the side with a crash, and strode down the hall to the elevator that would take them up to upper levels and the rooftop.

With their back to the group, the guards took the opportunity to rush straight for the exit without a second glance.

* * *

Sanford sprinted out of the elevator and onto the rooftop with the COO right on his heels, the helicopter ahead of them already spinning its blades. All they had to do was get in the air and they’d have a chance to escape.

The two only made it halfway to the helicopter when a thunderous blast threw them both to the ground. When Sanford glanced back, his heart immediately dropped into his stomach at what he saw.

Floating several meters above them, with debris rolling off their pauldrons and cloak, was the masked Intruder, and dangling from their grip was the heavy duty steel cables, holding up the elevator car that Sanford and the COO had just come out of. The elevator cable and car groaned and creaked audibly, clearly not designed to handle such rough treatment.

With air whistling around the elevator car, the Intruder swung the car forward and then backwards in an arc behind them. 

Sanford knew what they were planning, snatching up their ‘trump card’ and scrambling to his feet, hurriedly sprinting to get off the helicopter platform as quickly as he could.

Using the previously built up momentum, the Intruder swung the elevator car like a flail over their shoulder, and with a cacophonous, rumbling crash, brought the elevator down right on top of the helicopter. The elevator crushed the vehicle in an instant and collapsed part of the roof down onto the lower floors. A moment later, an explosion of fire and rubble rocked the roof of the skyscraper. The crashing elevator, followed by the explosion of the helicopter, were enough to knock Sanford to the ground again, the CEO curling up to avoid any debris that might hit him.

When the dust finally settled, Sanford cautiously raised his head to see the flames burning brightly in the crater that was once the helipad. His COO had managed to make it away from the destruction, but the pilot was certainly dead. Sanford shakily stood up and took stock of his surroundings, and found something amiss…

_Where is the—?_

The Intruder stood in front of him. 

Sanford let out a gasp and stumbled backwards and held onto his ‘trump card’ with a white knuckle grip as the masked Intruder towered over him. There was no sound nor movement that announced their arrival, no fanfare or spectacular entrance. One moment they weren’t there, and the next, they were. The sudden appearance of the Intruder before him sent Sanford’s mind reeling, unable to comprehend how such a being could exist. But he wanted to survive, and so forced down the nausea regardless.

As Sanford stood up on weak knees, ‘trump card’ in hand, the Intruder spoke as they approached.

“Christian Sanford,” they spoke in a deep, masculine voice, “you stand accused of having committed crimes against humanity.”

“W-what?!” the accused man sputtered, baffled by this turn of events. _Crimes against humanity? What the fuck does that even mean?_ “I’m not just gonna stand here and listen to the ramblings of a fucking lunatic who just rampaged through my headquarters and killed dozens of my employees!” As the Intruder stepped closer to Sanford, the CEO held up his ‘trump card’, an oddly shaped silver pistol, to the underside of his own chin.

The Intruder stopped midstep.

With only a short moment of hesitation, Sanford pulled the evoker’s trigger.

Sanford’s head snapped back, and there was the sound of shattering glass and a rush of ethereal wind as a figure appeared behind him.

Mechanical and inhuman in appearance, the creature had a synthetic body of wires, tubing, spikes, and blades. Its arms ended in sharp and bloodied metallic claws, and its digitigrade legs that ended in two flat, plate metal toes. Where the head and face would be was instead a circular maw of infinitely spinning razors.

Sanford could feel a maniacal grin on his face as he called to his Persona. 

“Come to me, Bakasura!” The sound of metal scraping against itself echoed from inside Bakasura’s maw, and the Persona screamed its challenge at the Intruder. Whether the Intruder was afraid or unimpressed by this, nothing could be gleaned from their mask nor their lack of reaction.

“I’ve got one of these too, you piece of shit,” Sanford spat venomously, his grin falling into a scowl when he began to realize that the Intruder wasn’t going to do anything. “And if you’re not gonna do anything about it, then I might as well get set up.” His other self crossed its metal arms across its chest as it prepared its skill. “Bakasura, Charge!” 

Bakasura’s metal plates separated and revealed the dull, pulsing red energy inside. Swirls of orange and red surrounded Sanford and Bakasura, and a beam of light suffused them both. With its task completed, Bakasura sank back into Sanford’s body and soul.

The Intruder simply stood there and watched.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Sanford brought the evoker back under his chin, the sound of shattering glass accompanying Bakasura’s return. “Don’t fucking mock me! Heat Riser!” Warm air swirled around Sanford, and he could feel the unrelenting empowerment take hold of his very being.

And still, the Intruder did nothing to stop him. As though they were unafraid of what was coming their way.

_Well, their ignorance will be the death of them then._

Without complaints or outrage this time, Sanford shot himself with the evoker a third time, the metal demon heeding its master’s call. “Persona! Revolution!”

A wave of golden spiraling light permeates both Sanford and the Intruder, and Sanford could feel his control over Bakasura increase exponentially.

The Intruder finally gave a reaction...by cocking their head to side, and nothing more.

Sanford grit his teeth hard enough to ache, rage barely contained. He’d show this asshole what it meant to mess with him and his company. With one last trigger pull and a scream of hatred, he commanded his Persona.

“Bakasura! Butcher’s Blade!”

With a screech, the metal demon lunged at the Intruder, its metal claws burning brightly, and with several swipes, sent giant, fiery slashes through the air at them, all of which struck the Intruder and exploded after a moment’s pause. 

The slashes and flames raked across the Intruder’s gauntleted arm, each swipe blocked by the armor. As the fire flickered away, they swung their arm through the air to cast away the dying embers, their armor unharmed and their cloak unburnt, even in the face of the empowered attack.

Sanford’s eyes widened in shock and panic after having watched his attack amount to nothing, but merely grit his teeth and pulled the trigger for the evoker again. “Bak—!” This time, however, the Intruder wasn’t content to simply stand there and watch, their hand raised in front of them as they flicked their finger in his direction.

Bakasura was in the process of being summoned when it was struck by the immense force sent their way. Sanford could not only feel it happen behind him, but also feel it in his mind, as though he were struck by the same force. With a metallic screech and the sound of shattering glass later, Bakasura disappeared, and Sanford’s body shook from the shock and pain. He fell to his knees a moment later, head pounding in agony, eyes wide and blood pouring down his nose.

The Intruder approached Sanford slowly, and their every heavily weighted footfall sounded like a death knell to him. “As I said before, Sanford...you are accused of having committed crimes against humanity.” Their voice sounded deep, like what one would think the Grim Reaper sounded like. 

In this moment, they might as well have been the Reaper.

His voice was shaky as he spoke, flecks of bloody spittle flung from his lips, but Sanford needed to know. “Wh-what...what crimes have I committed, then?”

A pregnant moment passed. The Intruder simply stared Sanford down without comment. Just as he was about to write them off, they spoke, their voice a deep and angry growl.

“One of your more recent developments, Astropre, was a pharmaceutical designed as a treatment for headaches. However, the drug also slowly destroyed the liver of whoever took the medication. Your company was sued by the ones who were harmed by Astropre, and the families of those that had lost loved ones to it.” The Intruder slowly began to stalk around Sanford, their slow footsteps thumping heavily against the rooftop. “And instead of burning the whole lot, as you should have, you repackaged and re-branded Astropre, then sold it overseas to countries where the citizenry were unable to read the English warning labels.”

Sanford’s jaw had dropped at this. He was becoming lightheaded, his vision blurring. “H-how did y-you—?” The Intruder cut him off before he could continue. “And even before that, four years ago your company increased the price of your cancer treatments by eight thousand percent. Then, two years ago, you had managed to lobby for legislation that would cut those kinds of treatments out of healthcare coverage.” 

Sanford opened his mouth to protest, when he felt a sharp edge press against his throat, and let out a frightened gasp. With a glance downwards, he saw that the blade held against him looked to be nearly a foot wide, and almost as tall as the Intruder themself. 

With the giant blade against Sanford’s throat, held with all the ease of a knife in hand, the Intruder continued their accusations. “Because of this, United States hospitals began to charge their patients even more for their treatments. In that time, about two million and two hundred thousand United States citizens have died, either because they were unable to pay for their treatments, or because they died in poverty, unable to feed themselves.”

They stepped away from him, greatsword pulled away to scrape along the ground. “For these crimes, Christian Sanford, your sentence…” He heard a rather frustrated growl from the Intruder, and glanced down to see their free hand balled up tightly in a fist. “Your sentence was death.”

Sanford looked up at them fearfully, but his face twisted into confusion at their words. “...Was?” That was all he managed to stammer out, because at that moment the Intruder was in front of him again, and held one hand tightly over his face. He futilely clawed at the hand that gripped him as he weakly struggled. He knew it was no use, but his first instinct was survival regardless.

“We have another use for you.”

That was the last thing he heard before the agony began.

Christian Sanford’s screams echoed all the way down to the streets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bet you weren't expecting that, huh?
> 
> This marks the beginning of something else. These Intermission chapters will be few and far between, but I needed to set this up now rather than later. This story will run concurrently to The Faith and The Fool, and is in fact intrinsically tied to it.
> 
> It'll all make sense at the end of this fic, I promise. For now, enjoy this sampling of a new villain.
> 
> Next chapter will be the semi-regularly scheduled ShuSumi fluff, don't worry.
> 
> Shout out to Dev0ted, Grumpy, and Proxy for beta'ing this chapter.
> 
> Dev's fics can be found [The Wish for Control](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24510076), [Your Purpose](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25192981), and [Reforming the Shattered.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26228026)  
> Gru's fic [Echo of the Forgotten.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24981250/chapters/60478747)  
> and Proxy's fic (Explicit Warning) [i might never come down](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24615556)
> 
> (also I'm sorry for constantly changing the chapter title but this is the last change I promise)


	7. Basics and Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two friends meet up and make good on their deal.

**6/8.**

Their bond became stronger, the sixth time they met.

Kasumi awoke to her second alarm that morning, reaching over, turning it off, then slowly stretching her arms above her head and letting out a quiet hum. Tossing the light cover off and rolling out of bed, she slowly went through her morning stretch routine, working up a light sweat and even trying some of the exercises Ren-senpai had shown her at the clean up trip.

As she worked through her morning routine—stretches first, then the exercises _—_ a memory of that trip, and specifically of Ren-senpai, came to her.

_Ren-senpai stood by the bench, his gym jacket laid across the back rest, and his white, short sleeved shirt and red track pants complimented the black compression sleeves. “I don’t think I need to tell you what muscles push-ups train, nor do I need to tell you that the positioning of your hands when doing the push-ups will train different muscle groups, right?”_

_Kasumi shook her head, and felt a cheeky grin on her lips. “No, Senpai, I deeefinitely didn’t know that, not at allll.”_

_“Alright, alright, you sassy l’il shit,” he sassed back, and Ren-senpai rolled his eyes at her when she giggled quietly. He waited a moment for her giggles to die down, then continued. “But positioning is also important. For those starting off, they’d place their hands on a higher surface, like against a wall or on a table.” Ren-senpai drew Kasumi’s gaze to the bench next to them with a kick against the it’s leg. “Or a bench, in our case.”_

_“But rather than putting our hands up on the bench, we’re putting our feet up there.” To demonstrate, Ren-senpai got into a push-up position, his feet hooked onto the back of the bench to keep his legs up. “The problem with these is that if you’re at a high enough angle, all the blood rushes to your head, so they kinda suck to do. But, they’re also very good for upper body training, especially if you do the harder push-ups at the same time.”_

“…Forty-nine…fifty.” The memory of their meeting came to her as Kasumi finished her last set of push-ups, feet propped up atop the bed and her hands on the floor, the tips of her index fingers and thumbs pressed together in a diamond shape. She nimbly rolled off the bed until she was back up on her feet, and worked through her cooldown stretches, before she finally headed off to the shower to wash up.

Fresh clothes in hand, Kasumi went into the bathroom, quickly undressed, and tossed the dirty sleepwear into the laundry basket. With the new clothes set aside, Kasumi sat down on the small plastic stool in front of the showerhead, and with the shower turned on, enjoyed the cool water that sprayed down on her.

Her thoughts as she sat there turned to the various, random assortment of things she typically thought about: gymnastics moves, what she’ll do later that day, what to have for breakfast, so on and so forth. But one thought that stuck out to her was another memory of Senpai, two days ago, when they walked together in the rain.

_“Hm? …Oh!” Kasumi was a tad distracted by the fact that the man who had harassed her a little over a week ago had just apologized to her. “He was calling to ask if I needed a ride, since it’s raining.” She shook her head with a smile on her lips, thinking about how much of a helicopter parent her Father had become._

_Granted, after what happened in March, perhaps he had every right to be._

_“A bit overprotective, don’t you think?”_

_Senpai’s gaze bore into her, like he was looking for lies. Whatever he saw in her face, he approved of it, because Senpai had a bright smile on his face, the mirth dancing in his eyes. “It sounds to me like you’ve got a great—” And just as quickly, that mirth died in an instant, replaced with a flash of…well, Kasumi wasn’t sure, but Senpai looked…haunted. “…dad.” The look was gone as quickly as it arrived._

_“S-Senpai? Are you okay?” She was concerned about his sudden change of attitude, and wanted to help him, especially if he was hurting inside like she suspected. Kasumi was sure that’s what he would do for her if their positions were reversed._

_He took a step back from her and cleared his throat. “Y-yeah, I’m fine, Kasumi. Promise.”_

Kasumi let out a sigh at the memory, then came to the realization she had just spent an undetermined amount of time simply staring at the bathroom wall, the water still running over her body. “Dang it, Senpai…why did you lie to me?”

That had hurt her, that realization. That Ren-senpai didn’t trust her enough to tell her the truth. It isn’t his fault though, it’s not like they knew each other that well, certainly not well enough to share painful secrets.

Regardless of the reasoning, however, it still stung.

It was while making miso soup for breakfast and checking her planner that Kasumi found she had a block of free time that day, between getting out of classes and having to meet with Coach Hiraguchi. She’d have to decide later on what to do, perhaps after classes. In the middle of her lightly seasoning the miso soup, she caught sight of her father walking into the kitchen.

“Ah, Kasumi. good morning,” he greeted her, with a soft smile on his face as he sat down at the kitchen table. “Miso soup this morning? It smells lovely as always.” 

Kasumi set a bowl of soup in front of her father, put one aside for her mother, then sat down with a bowl for herself. “Morning, Dad! Yeah, I just wanted something light this morning.” 

With herself situated at the table, Kasumi slowly ate the soup and savored the light flavor. She and her father were quiet that morning, simply enjoying each other’s company.

But silence tends to lend itself to thinking…or worse, remembering.

_The baton landed into her hand and she struck the pose. Kasumi had just finished her routine as the other members and Coach Hiraguchi watched._

_Everyone else appeared to have enjoyed the routine, if how they clapped was anything to go by._

_They didn’t know how Kasumi felt. She knew she could have done better, that she could have moved better. But her body didn’t obey her like it used to, seemed to rebel against the motions that she had grown accustomed to._

_When she looked to the sidelines, Coach simply stared at Kasumi with a frown on her face._

_“Coach?” Kasumi trotted over to her Coach. “Is something the matter?”_

_Coach hummed quietly, her hand on her chin. “Have you been practicing, Kasumi?”_

_“I…I have, yes.” She felt a pit beginning to form in her stomach. “But I feel like I’m not moving the way I want to be…”_

_“Hm…” Coach took a moment, then crossed her arms in front of her. “Kasumi, I think you need to take a break.”_

_Kasumi’s heart dropped into the same pit in her stomach at Coach’s words, and her whole body froze up. Asking “Why?” was the only verbalization her mouth could make._

_She watched Coach gesticulate a bit. “Because...because you need to take some time to think about who you really are, Kasumi,” Coach stated as she turned away from Kasumi. Without giving her a chance to reply, Coach dismissed Kasumi for the day._

_Dejected, Kasumi slowly packed her things away, but as she turned to head to the changing room, she took one last glance over her shoulder and saw Coach’s gaze on her. Caught in the act, Coach quickly turned away, snatched up her things, and left through the opposite exit, but not before Kasumi saw the look on her face._

_A look of pity and worry._

Kasumi bit the inside of her cheek to force down the pessimistic thoughts and quickly downed the rest of her soup, then turned and gave her father an apologetic look. “Sorry that I can’t stay long, Dad, but I gotta run.”

“Oh, don’t let me stop you from being early, Kasumi.” Her father gave her an understanding smile, reached over, and gently squeezed her shoulder. “Get going, sweetie.”

She stood up quickly and squeezed the hand on her shoulder. “Thanks Dad. Love you!”

After quickly brushing her teeth, Kasumi went darting out the front door and towards the train station, her teeth grit tight.

_I’m so tired of the pity party. I thought I was done with this two months ago._

* * *

“Hey, that calling card that was sent to the Madarame exhibit, do you think..?”

Ren couldn’t help his good hearing, regardless of how tired he was, so he couldn’t help listening in on the conversation between the two girls in front of him.

“Yeah, I think it’s just like the one sent to Kamoshida. People online are saying the Phantom Thieves are behind this.” _You’re damn right we are._ “There’s already a Phan-Site with a bunch of requests posted on it.” _Oh? I suppose I’ll have to check and see if there are new requests later._

“Well...I can’t believe there are real-life superheroes...if it’s happened twice, it’s probably going to happen again.” _Most likely. Wonder who would make for a good target…_ “Can’t wait to see who’s next.” _Me neither._

The conversation quieted, so Ren tuned out everything else and simply focused on planning ahead for confrontations he deemed inevitable.

And planning for the Black Mask that Madarame spoke of…

. . . . .

It would be a few hours of boring-as-hell classes, of material he had already studied on the train ride into Tokyo and those first few days in the city. He spent those few hours on his phone, and answered the occasional question thrown his way when the teachers called on him. Ushimaru was especially pissed when Ren answered his question without looking away from his phone. 

As per the norm, Ushimaru threw his piece of chalk at Ren in an attempt to ‘discipline’ him for not respecting a teacher, and, as per the norm, Ren caught the piece of chalk and pocketed it. Ushimaru was left fuming but went back to teaching the class regardless, and Ren went back to distracting himself, checking the Phan-site for any good requests and petting Morgana as the not-cat was lounging inside his desk. Overall, a boring day thus far.

At least, until Doctor Maruki came in.

When it came to Maruki’s lectures, Ren was always attentive: no phone in sight, back straight, and focused entirely on him.

“Sounds like a lot of people are going to be on that trip to the studio tomorrow,” Maruki started, that easy-going smile of his on his face. “Do you guys get to see the show, too?” There was a hint of childish glee in his voice as he thought about the second years’ trip. “I wouldn’t mind seeing that. I like talk shows...ooh, and variety shows!”

Ren couldn’t help but smile at Maruki’s excitement for them. He knew the doctor had a penchant for going off topic, and today was certainly no exception.

“Wonder if they’ll talk about the Phantom Thieves...they certainly get plenty of attention on TV and the internet.” Maruki let out a quiet hum, and glanced off to the side, his smile having fallen. “Although, I’m a little worried about what might happen if the media gets people too riled up…”

_Me too, Doc. Me too._

The doctor seemed to realize something, because Maruki snapped his fingers as his eyes lit up. “Oh, that reminds me. Have you guys covered totalitarianism yet?”

This is what Ren was looking forward to, something a bit more thought provoking than the day-to-day lectures that he tended to ignore.

“It’s a governmental structure that unites its people under a single ideology and authoritarian control of the masses. In theory, it brings the people together under one ideal. That definitely comes with logistical benefits…” Maruki pursed his lips for a moment and let a sigh out through his nose before he continued. “But it also means forcing ideals on people. Assimilating the unwilling. And that’s how wars get started.” He turned his attention to Ren, a knowing smile on his face. “Alright, Amamiya-kun. Here’s a question.”

“Hit me, Doc,” Ren replied with a grin.

Maruki pointed a finger at Ren and his smile grew wider. “Where does totalitarianism take things a step further than authoritarianism?”

“By controlling public thought. Dictating what people should and shouldn’t think.” His answer to Maruki’s question was confident, but he wasn’t done yet. “Totalitarian governments try to take control of the culture, morals, and as I said before, thoughts of its people.”

There was a quiet murmur of the students in the class as the doctor let out a laugh and clapped lightly. “Well said, Amamiya-kun. I’m surprised you knew about it to that extent!” His attention shifted back to the class. “As Amamiya-kun said, totalitarian governments try to take control of everything. To minimize dissidence, they try to assimilate everyone into one ideology. Even reading the room could be seen as a form of personal assimilation.” Maruki let out a quiet chuckle, and gestured to the class itself. “You all do that too, right? I try to, though I’m not great at it. It’s not a bad skill to have. It can even help you survive the modern world.”

_Totalitarianism and authoritarianism...certainly both have their appeal. But to force people into it? Definitely not something I’m into. Although, I have heard of ‘Father Knows Best’ governments that have potential._ Ren’s thoughts turned to the Phantom Thieves as a group. _And we’re, what, a democracy? But everyone always turns to me to lead us..._

Maruki’s smile fell, and his hand came up to scratch the back of his neck. “But you can’t do it too much. If you make an echo chamber, then the people whose opinions differ might get hurt, either emotionally, or worst case scenario, physically.”

The students around him began whispering quiet comments along the lines of disbelief that he had actually known that and questioning whether they should ask him for his notes. Unfortunately for them, they would be sorely disappointed.

“Wow,” Morgana commented from inside the desk. “I’m surprised you gave such a concise answer, Ren. Usually you give the bare minimum.”

Ren couldn’t exactly give an answer to Morgana without looking crazy, so he simply opted instead to stay quiet.

Maruki gently clapped his hands together, looked over the class, and seemed to make sure he made eye contact with everyone.“I’d like to remind you all to keep a strong sense of self and an open mind, so we can disagree and still live in harmony.” With a glance at the clock behind him, Maruki decided to end class at that point.

_Ugh...back to boring shit…_ Ren quietly hummed to himself as a thought crossed his mind. _Y’know what, fuck this. I need a nap._ With that thought in his head, Ren heaved a sigh, packed up his things, silently snuck Morgana back into his bag, and made his way to the rooftop.

. . . . .

  
  


“Nngh…” Kamoshida’s Shadow stumbled about the balcony, his yellow eyes wide with terror.

Joker saw Panther ease her posture in his peripheral vision but kept his focus on the piece of filth in front of him.

“What’s wrong? Not running away?” Panther’s voice had a deadly undercurrent to it, and her words practically dripped with venom. “Why don’t you run..? Aren’t you a great athlete?”

Kamoshida’s Shadow turned his head slightly so he could look at her, his fear replaced by hatred. “It’s always been like this…” The Shadow turned his gaze back down, likely to gaze at his crown.”All those goddamn hyenas forcing their expectations on me..!” He whipped his head around to glare at the four of them. “I’m doing this all for them! What’s wrong about demanding a reward for that!?”

“Now you’re makin’ excuses?” Skull sounded as disgusted as Joker felt, though likely not as much as Panther. “We’ll do somethin’ about that distorted heart of yours.”

“Hrrgh…” Kamoshida’s Shadow clutched the crown tighter, and his eyes darted about as he searched for some way out. His focus settled on the balcony behind himself, and Joker could hear the Shadow’s breath hitch.

“Scared?” Panther took a step forward, held a hand out, palm up. Carmen appeared in a burst of blue flame. “Right now, you’re seeing the same view that Shiho did.” She took another step forward, and Carmen conjured a ball of flame in Panther’s hand. “I’m sure she was scared too…except she felt she had no choice but to jump…” The flame in her hand burned brighter, burned hotter. “What will you do? Will you jump? Or would you rather die here?”

Kamoshida’s Shadow shrunk back against the balcony’s rail, his hands clutched tight to the crown. “N-Ngh…”

“Do you want to finish him off?” Mona asked Panther, head turned to address her. “It’s your call.”

The sweat dripped down the Shadow’s brow, his expression panicked as he raised a hand in an attempt to placate Panther. “No, please wait! I beg you...just forgive—!”

“Shut up.” Orbs of fire surrounded Carmen and Panther, a veritable wreath of flame around them. Joker had to squint his eyes and held a hand in front of him, the blaze was so intense. “I bet everyone told you the same.” Panther’s voice rose in volume, and the flames coalesced into the fire above her hand. “But you...you took everything from them!” She launched a part of the blaze right at Kamoshida’s Shadow—

“Aagh!” The Shadow fell to his knees and covered his head with his arms—

Panther redirected the fireball at the last second. The flame exploded against the wall next to Kamoshida’s Shadow.

When Kamoshida’s Shadow realized he wasn’t dead, he immediately tossed the crown in their direction, his head bowed as tears pricked at his eyes. “I accept defeat...you want this? Take it.”

Joker caught the crown in his hand without looking, his gaze never leaving the Shadow.

“Go ahead and finish me off…” Kamoshida’s Shadow turned his gaze to the floor, his voice despondent. The other two weren’t looking, but Joker was watching Panther’s reaction through his Third Eye. The longer the Shadow talked, the angrier Panther became. “If you do that…my real self will go down too. You have that right, since you’ve won…” Panther’s hand formed a claw, and then a clenched fist, and Joker knew what was about to happen.

Panther let out a scream of rage, and turned her fireball into a jet of flame, practically an inferno at the Shadow—.

Skull let out a gasp. “Ann—!”

Joker remained silent, though he did flinch slightly at the heat—.

In the inferno’s wake, Kamoshida’s Shadow remained unharmed. The Shadow looked back up to Ann, eyes wide with confusion.

Her voice rang out determined, if still venomous. “If his mind shuts down, he can’t admit his crimes.”

Mona nodded slowly as he looked up at her. “You’re kind, Lady Ann.”

Joker heard a sigh of relief from Skull, but his gaze was still singularly focused on Kamoshida’s Shadow. At his side, Joker’s hand twitched.

“I’ve...lost.” The Shadow’s body sagged, head bowed low. Joker could see tears drip onto the ground below. “You’re through when you lose…What am I—what am I supposed to do now..?” 

Joker could feel his teammates glance at him, but he remained silent.

“Uh…” Skull scratched the back of his head as he decided to fill the quiet since Joker wouldn’t answer. “Figure it out yourself, Kamoshida. Just...stop being such a shitty person, y’know?”

Kamoshida’s Shadow raised his head, and his eyes shone with a small glimmer of hope. “Alright…I will leave now and retu—” That was all the Shadow could get out before a cacophonous ‘BANG’ echoed throughout the throne room, and the Shadow’s head jerked backward. When he fell forward, there was a gaping gunshot wound oozing black ichor in the middle of his forehead, and a look of utter shock on his face. His lifeless body flopped onto the floor with a disgustingly wet ‘splat’, then turned into black vapors before them.

There was a deathly silence as Mona, Panther, and Skull turned to Joker. 

They all saw the smoking magnum in his outstretched hand.

Joker’s lips quivered for a moment. A breath escaped him, and then his lips stretched out into a manic grin, as the unhinged laughter overflowed from his throat. With the flick of his wrist, his dagger slid into his free hand, and he lunged right for Panther, and the rush of her horror-stricken face fueled his—.

Ren awoke with a terrified yell and bolted upright, a movement that earned a startled yelp from Morgana as the not-cat fell off Ren’s chest. The horror of what he’d witnessed in his dream clung to his thoughts like a spider’s web and tightened around him like a noose. As his breath came in quick gasps, and his arms wrapped tight around himself, Ren found he couldn’t control himself anymore, paralyzed by fear. Intellectually, he knew he was having a panic attack, but found he was unable to break himself out of it regardless.

“Ren!” Morgana was quick to respond as the not-cat leaped into Ren’s lap, sat upon his hind legs, and placed his forepaws on Ren’s chest. “Slow breaths, Ren, slow breaths. Calm. Relax.”

With a slow shudder that ran through his whole body, Ren forced his breathing to slow until he could hold his breath. He held for ten seconds, and then slowly released the breath through his mouth, then did the process again just to be sure.

_That didn’t happen…Kamoshida’s heart was changed, he didn’t have a mental shutdown…Ann and Ryuji are fine…I’m fine._ Repeating those thoughts to himself like a mantra, Ren kept reassuring himself that everything was better than it actually was.

When he had finally calmed himself, Ren looked down at Morgana, then wrapped his arms around the not-cat. “Th-thanks, bud.”

Morgana let out a quiet noise of affirmation. “Another nightmare, Ren?”

“Y-Yeah.” The nightmares had been happening more and more frequently as of late, especially after the Madarame confession. If these were going to keep happening, should he really be the one leading the Phantom Thieves? _This happened after that battle with Madarame, but never that...detailed. If the leader of the Phantom Thieves is thinking and dreaming like this, what would happen if I_ act _on these thoughts? What would happen if I—._

_No. No thinking like that._ He banished the thought away and focused his attention on petting the not-cat in his lap. “Guess I’ve got another thing to talk to Maruki about, huh?” Ren got a quiet murmur as a reply, but he wouldn’t press too hard about what Morgana said. He decided now was as good a time as any to cut loose a bit, so he dipped his hand into his uniform jacket and retrieved his flask. One unscrewed cap later, Ren was sipping some cheap liquor he had used his fake ID to get. Not enough to get him drunk, but certainly enough to give him a quiet buzz. 

With his thoughts effectively silenced, or at the very least, muffled, Ren laid his head back down on his bag, and let the liquor-induced sleepiness take him.

Or at least he would have, if Morgana hadn’t padded his way onto Ren’s chest and made the raven-haired teen wince and look up at the not-cat.

Morgana looked away for a moment, then looked Ren in the eyes. “Ren, you seriously shouldn’t be drinking. It impairs your judgement, which is especially bad when you’re our lead—.”

“Morgana,” Ren cut off the not-cat before he could finish, voice full of sudden aggravation, “I got arrested for a crime I didn’t commit, went through some real bad shit that I’d rather not mention, and got sent all the way to the city just so I wouldn’t be an eyesore at home. Let me have my vices. Please.”

That quieted Morgana, who looked at Ren with a sorrowful expression on his face, then laid his head against Ren’s chest, huffed quietly, and stayed silent.

Ren took that as a sign he could finally rest, so he closed his eyes and let himself be carried off into dreamless sleep.

* * *

Kasumi just finished her last class of the school day, one full of rumors, schoolwork, and general boredom. The rumors about her, about Senpai, and about her and Senpai kept cropping up, but she was doing much better at ignoring them today than she did two days ago. As for schoolwork, she fortunately already had a study schedule that let her stay on top of class and homework, so she tended to already know a lot of the material that was being taught. 

Unfortunately, this led to that general sense of boredom she felt during the day, even though she did her best to pay attention to class anyways.

Thankfully the school day is over now. For the moment, Kasumi was lounging at her desk, debating on what she could do with her free time.

The thought of Ren-senpai crossed her mind, and Kasumi chewed her lip lightly. _Is now a good time to contact him? We only spoke two days ago, isn’t it too soon?_ She pulled out her phone, glad that it’s working for once, and brought up the conversation with Ren-senpai. She saw the last messages they had sent each other and smiled to herself. Kasumi knew Ren-senpai found gentle teasing to be humorous, but how well does that translate to text? _Not very,_ was the answer she gave herself. _Better to be safe than sorry, I wouldn’t want to say the wrong thing and offend him._

Kasumi:

> _Hello, Senpai! Do you have time today?_
> 
> _I have a bit of free time today, and I was thinking I need to make good on our deal, not to mention I’d like to learn a bit from you as well, and there’s no time like the present, right?_
> 
> _We can start hammering those basics into you anytime!_

Kasumi got her things together and walked out of the class while she waited for a reply, but it didn’t seem she had to wait too long when she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She stepped over to the side of the hallway and fished her phone out of her pocket and checked the conversation again.

Rude Delinquent:

> _Sure, I’m free today. If you wanna meet up now, I’m on the roof, but I don’t think we should practice up here._

She wasn’t terribly surprised Ren-senpai was on the roof already, it was definitely something he’d do. So with a resigned sigh, Kasumi shook her head and trotted her way up to the roof.

. . . . .

Kasumi couldn’t say she was shocked when she found the door to the rooftop propped open with a chair, and saw a lounging Senpai atop a couple of desks, his school bag at his side, as one of his legs dangled off the side of the desks. What did surprise her, at least somewhat, was how he had a deck of cards that he shuffled through his fingers with an incredible amount of dexterity. The cards slid between his fingers as easily as flowing water, his hands performing complex tricks that left Kasumi wondering how much practice he has had doing this.

_Huh. Apparently, Senpai’s a card shark._ The memory of their first encounter back in April, of Senpai rolling a coin between his fingers, came to mind, and Kasumi nodded to herself. _Actually, that makes sense, now that I think about it._

Just as she finished that thought, Senpai flipped the final card onto the top of the deck and called out to her. “Hey there, Kasumi. Good day for a workout, huh?”

When Kasumi walked out onto the roof, she smiled, in spite of her anxiety about being somewhere she shouldn’t be. _Am I getting used to this? Oh, dear..._ Kasumi silently lamented Senpai’s influence on her, but she didn’t dislike her newfound ability to break the rules sometimes. Still, she had to be careful, otherwise she could go too far and actually get in trouble.

“Hello, Senpai. I hope I’m not intruding on anything right now,” Kasumi replied to Senpai with genuine cheer in her voice. “You look like you’re a bit busy practicing your card tricks.”

Senpai smirked and swung his legs and body so he sat in an upright position. “Yeah, well, I can always make time for you, Kasumi. Gotta keep our promises to each other, after all.” With a short hop, he was on his feet, and with a few steps, he stood in front of her. “So, Kasumi. Where do you wanna do this?” He glanced around for a moment. “We could do it up here, but...can’t really do full contact sparring, which is what I want so you can get used to the feel of fighting.”

Kasumi hummed to herself quietly. “If I had to pick a place...maybe Inokashira Park? Would certainly give us a lot of space to move around in.” She took a glance back at the rooftop door. “And also we wouldn’t be somewhere we’re not allowed.”

With a snicker, Ren-senpai nodded his assent. “Not a terrible idea, but...if you have the time, would you mind if we stopped over in Yongen-Jaya? I gotta pick something up for us to use.” Morgana popped his furry head out of Ren-senpai’s bag with a loud ‘Mraow!’, and Ren-senpai let out a laugh and rubbed the cat’s head gently. “And I gotta drop this guy over there too.”

A quick trot placed Kasumi in front of Ren-senpai, and more importantly, Morgana, and she swiftly went about the very, oh so incredibly important task of giving the cat some pets. She was immediately rewarded with a loud purr from Morgana and the cat practically melted into a puddle in her hands. “He’s such a good, well-behaved kitty,” Kasumi remarked with a quiet giggle, then shifted her gaze, only to meet Ren-senpai’s expectant look.

“Eh. Sometimes.” Ren-senpai shrugged and gave the cat a knowing look. “Other times he likes to be a loud-mouthed li’l shit.” This comment was met with a yowl, the tuxedo cat sitting up on his paws and his tail swishing in agitation as he glared at Ren-senpai.

“Wow, it’s like you’re having an actual conversation with your cat, Senpai. Maybe you shouldn’t bully him so much, he could claw you, you know.” Kasumi couldn’t help but giggle quietly as she watched their antics.

“Yeah, that’s what being a cat owner is like. Cats are smarter than people think, Kasumi. All animals are, really. Watch this,” Senpai said with a smirk, raised his hand, and flipped Morgana his middle finger, much to Kasumi’s chagrin.

With an even louder yowl, one that startled Kasumi, Morgana stood up on all legs and hissed at Senpai, right before the tuxedo cat leapt at him. Morgana’s teeth dug into Senpai’s finger, and his claws held fast to Senpai’s hand.

For his part, Senpai seemed less than concerned with this new development. From what Kasumi could tell, he downright seemed bored, even though there was currently a cat on his hand that threatened to claw it bloody. “S-Senpai, are you okay? That looks like it hurts...”

“Hm?” Senpai glanced up and took a look at her worried face, then waved his free hand in an attempt to allay her concerns. “Oh, this? Nah, I’m fine. I’ve had worse, anyway.” With that same free hand, he grabbed a handful of skin on the back of Morgana’s neck and the tuxedo cat immediately went still. With his grip on Morgana’s scruff secure, Senpai placed him back into the school bag and quickly zipped it up. There was a low growl from the bag, one which only made Senpai smirk. “You ready, Kasumi?”

Kasumi looked from Senpai’s hand, to his face, then back to his hand. “U-Um...yes, but...promise me you’ll clean your hand first? Those scratches could get infected…”

Senpai held up the scratched hand and flexed the digits a few times. “Eh. I’ll be okay, but,” he started, and shifted his gaze from his hand back to her. “If you’re that worried about it, I can wash it before we leave. Just meet me by the steps in front, alright?”

“Alright, Senpai!” Despite her reservations about Ren-senpai’s hand, Kasumi was still excited to start her self defense training. “I’ll see you down there, okay?” When she got a quick nod as an affirmation, she quickly made her way to the rooftop door and opened it.

Only to be met with the glaring red eyes of the third year Student Council President, Makoto Niijima.

“N-N-Niijima-senpai!” Panic. Pure panic coursed through Kasumi’s veins as she stared at the brunette third year. _This is it, the student council president saw me hanging out with the supposed delinquent somewhere we shouldn’t be, but that’s still no excuse andnowI’mgoingtogetkickedoutofthe—._

It was then that Kasumi felt Ren-senpai’s hand on her shoulder as he pulled her backward and put himself between her and Niijima-senpai.

Niijima-senpai’s gaze flicked over to Ren-senpai and her eyes narrowed marginally. “You two do understand that you aren’t allowed to be up here.” Her tone was sharp and only grew sharper. “We’ve had this discussion already, Amamiya-kun.”

“Well, Niijima- _senpai_ ,” Ren-senpai started, his voice having taken on an even coolness that Kasumi hadn’t heard before. “It is a little difficult to have a private conversation when all of the student body and their mothers are attempting to listen in.” His head turned slightly, and she could see him look at her out of the corner of his eye for a moment before he returned his attention to Niijima-senpai. “Besides, we were just leaving.”

Kasumi couldn’t help but look between the two of them with worry. There was a tension in the air that she really did not want to be a part of, but was regardless. Then there was the fact that Ren-senpai was actually acting respectfully towards Niijima-senpai, which was something that threw Kasumi off since she thought Ren-senpai didn’t respect anyone he wasn’t friends with.

There was a thoughtful hum from Niijima-senpai, as she crossed her arms and her gaze flitting between Kasumi and Ren-senpai. “I suppose that’s as good a reason as any…” She lifted one of her hands up and pointed at Ren-senpai. “But you still shouldn’t be picking the lock on the door, Amamiya-kun.”

“Well, if you gave me the key, I wouldn’t have to.” Even if she couldn’t see his face, Kasumi could practically hear the smirk in Senpai’s voice. “Otherwise, where else am I going to nap?”

Niijima-senpai pursed her lips tightly, eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. “You should be studying, Amamiya-kun, instead of skipping classes.” Her voice took on a sudden icy undercurrent. “Or perhaps, you really are just the delinquent everyone makes you out to be?”

It was an incredibly small movement, but Kasumi was paying enough attention to notice it.

Senpai’s hand twitched ever so slightly.

Senpai had _flinched._

Niijima-senpai’s eyes narrowed, lips deepened into a frown, and—.

Kasumi stepped past Senpai before Niijima-senpai could speak, without any hesitation or thought put into the action. The two of them snapped their attention to her as a consequence. “U-Um…” She gently took a hold of Senpai’s compression sleeve and tugged on it gently. “We, uh, we should get going if we want to train, Senpai. I have a meeting with my coach in a few hours.” When she looked at him, she saw his jaw clenched tight, and for a second she thought she could hear his teeth grind against each other.

Senpai’s eyes bore into her own, searching for a second, then gave her a curt nod. “We should.” He turned his attention back to Niijima-senpai, and his voice had a sharper edge underneath the coolness. “If you do not mind, Niijima-senpai?”

Niijima-senpai’s gaze darted back and forth between the two of them. Closing her eyes and letting out a sigh, she took a step to the side to allow them past her. “Just don’t get into any more trouble, Amamiya-kun.”

Ren-senpai let out a quiet grunt and stepped past Niijima-senpai without another word.

“Sorry for the bother, Niijima-senpai.” With a small bow, Kasumi left her there on the rooftop and quickly took the steps two at a time to catch up to Senpai.

* * *

After having gotten dressed in their gym clothes and taken the train to Yongen-Jaya so Ren could pick up his duffel bag and drop off Morgana, it had taken the two of them about an hour to finally get to Inokashira Park.

Kasumi had tried to talk to Ren about what Niijima had said, but he told her he needed to cool down first. Thankfully, that hour they had spent warming up for their workout and training had ironically cooled him off. Now, after having finished Kasumi’s stretches and equipping the padded gear, they began their full contact sparring.

“Kyah!”

“Louder!”

“B-but won’t that bother the other people in the park?”

“Forget what they think. If you’re being assaulted, you need people to hear you so they can come to help you, and to drive off your assaulter. They have a tendency to be cowards, and run when confronted. Now, louder!”

“KI-YAH!” Kasumi struck Ren’s padded glove with a palm strike as he circled around her. Another punch, a kick, then an upper and center guard when Ren went on the offensive. _She’s consistently returning to her neutral stance, good. Her form is getting better…kicks are powerful, but punches are lacking, though it’s not like that’s a problem. She’s a natural,_ Ren mentally noted. _But let's see if she can handle the unexpected,_ he thought as he threw a low kick as bait, then lunged forward to get into Kasumi’s guard.

She defended against the kick with a low block, but her response to the lunge was less than stellar, thrown off by Ren’s sudden approach. Kasumi’s unsteady punch to his abdomen was easily batted aside, and Ren took the opportunity to place his leg behind her right leg, then push on her left shoulder. Kasumi let out a yelp of shock as her right leg suddenly buckled and she fell backwards, but before she could hit the ground, Ren caught her by the wrist and waist to catch her.

“Senpaiii,” Kasumi huffed, a pout on her lips, “you didn’t say you were going to do grapples too…”

Ren gave her a cocky smirk, which only deepened the pout on Kasumi’s lips. “You gotta expect something unexpected, Kasumi. An assailant isn’t going to conform to all your expectations.” He let her think about it for a moment, then pulled her back to an upright position and took a step back from her. “Also, I noticed that the punch to my stomach wasn’t exactly a ten out of ten. What happened there?”

He watched as Kasumi winced and brought one hand to rub at her other arm. “I uh…um…I—.”

“You didn’t want to hurt me.” Ren finished for her with a stern tone to his voice, and he watched Kasumi wilt under his gaze. He let out a quiet sigh, then smacked the padding that covered his torso. “The whole point to defending yourself is that you have to hurt the other person, Kasumi. And I can take a hit, trust me.”

“I know, I know, but I just can’t bring myself to..,” Kasumi stopped, and seemed to consider her words for a moment. “To punch someone I’m friends with, Senpai.”

_“Get out of here, you scumbag! Fuckin’ hell, you think you know a guy, then it turns out—.”_

Ren could physically feel one of the blood vessels in his forehead about to pop, such was his sudden onset of rage, and grit his teeth hard enough to hear them grind against each other audibly.

Audibly enough for Kasumi to hear, apparently, because suddenly she was up close to his face, her expression one of concern. “Senpai? What’s wrong, you look…” Ren could see her tense a bit, concern turning to worry. “Really, really mad…” 

He brought his hands up and slowly ran them down his face, practicing his slow breathing exercises to release the anger from his body. When Ren was finally in control of himself again, he began to remove the padding from his arms and torso, tossing them haphazardly onto the duffel bag he had brought them in. Kasumi, thankfully, quietly followed suit, though he could still see her glance at him every so often.

When they were finished, Kasumi stood in front of Ren. She started to reach a hand out to him, but held back and looked him in the eyes, the request plain on her face. He nodded once, and Kasumi placed her hand on his shoulder. “Is something wrong, Senpai? …Did I…” Ren watched her chew on her lip and look down at her feet. “Did I do something wrong, or—?”

“No.” Ren immediately placed his hands on her shoulders, gripped them tight, and stared her in the eyes. He had to shut that line of thought down, because he knew the sort of places that it led to. “It wasn’t you, just…” He closed his eyes, did what he could to sort through his own thoughts, and let his grip on her shoulders relax. 

_How do I give advice without giving too much of myself away? Something’s gotta give, but I’d rather it not be me._

It took him a few seconds, but when he finally found the words he opened his eyes and looked into Kasumi’s. “Sometimes, you think a person is your friend. And for a while, maybe they actually, truly are.” Ren’s hands squeezed her shoulders gently, and he hoped she would understand the severity of what he intended to tell her. “But then it turns out that they were just using you. And when you find out about it, they don’t exactly take it well.”

Ren made sure to hold Kasumi’s gaze, which, thankfully, didn’t turn out to be too difficult, as she was focused on him the whole time. “Sometimes, they react…aggressively. And you need to defend yourself…need to fight them.” He couldn’t look her in the eyes anymore, and found his gaze on the river. His hands dropped from her shoulders, dangled at his sides for a moment, then both came up to rub at his sleeved forearms. “You can’t think of them as your friend in that moment, Kasumi. You have to defend yourself.” Ren made sure to give a tone that brooked no argument. “You need to.”

When he glanced back at her, Ren saw the one thing he didn’t want to see, the one emotion on her face that he knew would make him angry, yet knew he had expected it anyways; Pity. He turned from her, crouched down, and started to pack away the body padding.

“Senpai? …Are you speaking from experience, or—?” “Kasumi, I would prefer not to talk about it any further. Please.” His words and tone were sharper than he had intended, and through his Third Eye, he could see Kasumi wince. “We’re done with sparring for the day, Kasumi. Take five minutes to wind down.” 

Ren, through the Third Eye, watched her face scrunch up as she walked away from him. He felt a twinge in his heart, about it, but knew he could apologize for it later. _So much for having cooled off. Dammit._

* * *

With the body padding put away, the two of them took to their different methods of cooling down after their workout. Ren-senpai had left for a short run, while Kasumi was busy with a cooldown stretch to ease the muscles she had used.

Now that she had some time to herself, Kasumi’s thoughts inevitably drifted to Ren-senpai. He was...a bit difficult to work with at times, but she didn’t regret the deal she made with him. Quite the opposite, in fact—she had learned quite a bit with him. It was just the fact that he practically refused to open up about himself, even just a little bit, that was killing her.

_I suppose I’ll just have to be patient. You can’t just force someone to open up, after all…_

Ren-senpai finally came back after about ten minutes, with what looked like two bottles of water in his hands. “Sorry for taking so long, the vending machines were a bit further than I had thought. Catch.” 

That was the only warning Kasumi received before he tossed her the bottle. Her hands fumbled a bit with it before she finally secured her grip on the bottle. “You didn’t have to buy me this, Senpai. I’m really not that thirsty…”

Senpai waved away her concerns. “Nah, it’s not a problem, Kasumi. It’s just pocket change anyways.” He took his seat next to her, uncapped the bottle, and then she watched with a small amount of awe as he downed the entire thing in less than ten seconds. “Geez, Senpai…you must be really thirsty.”

“Mmh,” was Senpai’s succinct reply.

There was an awkward silence between the two of them after that, and Kasumi couldn’t stop fidgeting. She wanted to say something, but…

“Hey, Kasumi?” 

Senpai’s voice was quiet and hesitant, and prompted Kasumi to look over at him. “Yes, Senpai?”

“I uh..,” Senpai started, then stopped for a moment, looked away, and bit his lip. “I’m sorry for being rude earlier. I’ve just…” He let out a breath, pressed his hands to his face, and then slowly dragged them down. “I’ve been stressed lately. Real stressed. And when you started asking about if I went through…” He swallowed audibly for a moment. “If I experienced what I talked about before, it kinda…” His voice quavered for a moment. “Brought up some bad memories. Ones I’d rather not talk about.”

Kasumi waved her hands in front of her and shook her head, the surprise sure to be plain on her face. “No no, Senpai! Really, there’s no need to apologize for that.” Letting her hands fall into her lap, she did her best to muster up a smile. “I probably shouldn’t have tried to pry like that.” She gave as low a bow as she could while sitting next to him. “I sincerely apologize.”

Holding that pose, Kasumi was waiting for Ren-senpai to say something. Say anything, really. Instead, she sat there, in that pose, for about five seconds, before she finally lifted her head up and wondered what took Ren-senpai so long to reply. “Sen—.” 

Before she could finish, Senpai softly bopped her on the head with a gentle karate chop. “Ah!” Kasumi rubbed the spot on her scalp where he hit her and pouted up at him.

Senpai, for his part, had that smug grin on his face that he always had when he got a rise out of her. “Apology accepted, Kasumi.”

“Did you have to hit me, though?” Kasumi complained with a quiet whine.

Senpai looked far too pleased with himself with his eyes closed and that grin on his face. “Gotta test your awareness, Kasumi. Otherwise, all your training is meaningless.” 

Kasumi frowns at that, runs her eyes over Senpai’s seemingly vulnerable position, and clenches her hand into a palm strike, ready to test him on what he just said. She threw a light punch at his abdomen, with the intention to stop before she actually hit him. 

Before her hand could even come close, Senpai deflected it away with his eyes still closed, and that grin of his grew even wider. “See what I mean?”

“Hooow?!” Kasumi dropped her hands into her lap and stared at Senpai in astonishment.

He brought his hand up and made a zipper motion across his lips, chuckling quietly. “Sensei’s secret.”

Kasumi raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh, so you’re Sensei now, huh?” She made sure to put some extra emphasis on the sarcasm since she knew that’s what he would get a laugh out of.

Sure enough, Ren-senpai threw his head back and laughed out loud. “Oh god, no! Forget I said anything.”

They settled into a more comfortable silence as the seconds ticked on. Kasumi allowed herself to relax a bit, the smile still on her face.

_“Or perhaps, you really are just the delinquent everyone makes you out to be?”_

The memory of Niijima-senpai telling off Ren-senpai suddenly flared to the forefront of Kasumi’s mind. The suddenness of it caused Kasumi to let out a gasp and prompted Ren-senpai to turn his head to her and tilt his head a bit.

“Something wrong, Kasumi?

Kasumi realized she had to say something, so…she may as well tell him how she felt about their encounter. _Well…here goes nothing._ “S-Senpai? About what happened on the rooftop, I—.”

“Oh, that?” Ren-senpai made a dismissive sound and shook his head. “It’s fine. I’m over it, Kasumi, re—.”

“No!” Kasumi slapped her hands down onto her lap for emphasis and startled Ren-senpai in the process. She held her hands back up, palm out. “Oh! I’m sorry, Senpai. But…” She drew in a small breath to steady herself. “You,” Kasumi started, stared him in the eye, and reached out to grab him by the shoulder, “are not just a delinquent, Senpai.” She gave him as honest a smile as she could muster without it being overbearing. “You’re my friend.”

Ren-senpai’s mouth opened marginally, and his eyes widened as he stared back at her. Then his face brightened with such a warm, bright smile, one that reached all the way to his eyes and made them twinkle. “Thanks, Kasumi. I needed that.”

She couldn’t help but widen her smile at that, and the two of them fell back into that familiar, comfortable silence of theirs. Kasumi sipped at her water, thankful now that she had something to slake her thirst. She didn’t realize how much talking could dry out one’s mouth, and before she even realized it, she had finished her water.

They sat like that for a little while, just the two of them looking out over the river. She wished they could just stay like that until they had to leave. But Kasumi knew she had to tell Ren-senpai about what her coach told her too, so… “Senpai?”

Ren-senpai turned and raised an eyebrow at her. “Yeah?”

  
“Well...I would like to continue with our gymnastics training, Senpai, but…” Kasumi looked away for a moment, trying to think of what to say to Ren-senpai. The anxiety had welled up in her, and it clearly must have shown on her face because she felt Ren-senpai’s hand on her shoulder. When she looked back at him, he had that calm, familiar smile on his face that never failed to put her at ease.

“Take your time, Kasumi. No rush.” Ren-senpai’s tone was such a marked change from earlier, but it was certainly a welcome one.

The patience and reassurance from Ren-senpai helped her calm herself down. Kasumi took a few breaths to facilitate the calmness she wished to instill in herself, then continued, her eyes locked onto his. “I’m actually not doing so great at the moment, so I’m not sure I could manage anything too strenuous.”

Kasumi watched Senpai’s eyebrows shoot upward in worry, and the hand on her shoulder squeezed down gently. “Are you okay? I didn’t push you too hard, did I?”

She shook her head and softly patted the hand Senpai had on her shoulder. “Oh, I’m not sick or anything…physically, I’m doing perfectly fine…”

“Good!” Senpai let his hand drop from her shoulder, but gently nudged her with his elbow. “Next time, then.”

She felt a small smile on her lips as she pushed back against his elbow. “Thank you for understanding, Senpai,” she said, and Kasumi found that she was grateful that he wasn’t disappointed by the turn of events. She placed her hands on her knees and leaned onto her legs, her gaze cast back to the river in front of them as she thought on how to come clean to Senpai about what Coach Hiraguchi told her. “Do you remember how I said I wanted to talk to you about something?”

Senpai gave her one of those smug smirks of his. “Yeah, you said you just needed someone’s advice, and I told you that was way too good of a deal.”

The snark from him brought a small smile to Kasumi’s face, but the reminder of what she was about to tell him caused it to fall away. “I’ve been feeling like…I’m stuck in a slump.” She leaned further forward, resting her elbow on her knee and her chin on her hand. “No matter how much I practice, I can’t get any better. I went to my coach about it, but…” 

“...But?” Senpai asked with a tilt to his head.

Kasumi slowly exhaled through her nose. “She told me to take some time off from gymnastics. According to her, I need to think about who I really am.” With a grimace, she gently scratched her forearm, and let out a disquieted hum. “The idea isn't to stop doing gymnastics entirely, just…she wants me to take a break.”

Ren-senpai hummed quietly and mirrored her position, elbow on his knee and chin in his hand. “So now you’re just stuck on what to do, is that it?”

“Mmhm,” she replied and nodded her head. “I’ve never had an issue that practice couldn’t solve. But now…I have no idea what to do.” Kasumi closed her eyes and straightened back up, and heard the rustle of clothing that told her Ren-senpai just did the same. “So…um..,” _Why is admitting you need help from someone always so difficult in the moment?_ “I…I want you to help me, Ren-senpai.”

When she opened her eyes, Ren-senpai already had a smile ready for her. It wasn’t one of his cocky smirks that he usually has when he’s about to crack a joke, but a kind smile that spoke of warmth and understanding. “Of course I’ll help you, Kasumi.”

The way he said that, like it was the easiest thing in the world, brought a wide smile to Kasumi’s lips. She felt incredibly lucky to have Ren-senpai as a friend…even when he gets on her nerves every once in a while…and has an issue with talking about his problems. _I’ll get him to crack one day, and then I can help him like he’s helped me._ “So,” she started, “even if we’re not doing gymnastics, will you still keep going out with me?”

Ren-senpai reacted in a way Kasumi hadn’t expected—he sputtered, his eyes blinked rapidly, and he stared at her with a baffled look on his face. “Uhhh…” She watched him reach up and toy with a lock of raven hair, and his eyes darted back and forth before they finally settled back on her. “Like…romantically?”

Now it was Kasumi’s turn to be confused, her head tilted slightly. “Romantically? What does—?”

_...Oh. ‘Going out’. Right._

Kasumi shook her head with an apologetic smile on her lips and her hands held up before her. “No, sorry, Senpai, nothing of the sort.”

Again, Kasumi didn’t expect how Ren-senpai would react—he began to laugh, and rather hysterically at that, his arms propped on his legs as he leaned forward. His hands came up to cover his face as he slowly leaned back against the bench.

“S-Senpai? What’s so funny?” She was sure the confusion was plain in her voice.

It seemed Ren-senpai heard her, because he slapped his cheeks in an attempt to stop laughing. “Sorry, sorry, I just—.” He drew in a slow breath and released it through his nose, eyes wide and lips curled at the corners. “Never, not once since I began dating, have I ever been shut down that hard before…Oh!” he said as he snapped his fingers, and held his hands up in apology. “I’m not actually interested in dating at the moment, so don’t feel bad about saying no.”

“That’s quite alright, Senpai. I’m not terribly interested in dating right now either,” Kasumi replied with an understanding smile. “Besides, I don’t really see you like that,” she said as her smile turned into a joking smirk. “You’re more of an annoying older brother, really.”

“Annoying?!” Ren-senpai exclaimed, his hand over his chest in mock offense. After a moment, he had a thoughtful look on his face, then nodded his head. “Yeah, that tracks.”

Kasumi giggled at that and yelped when she received a light push on the shoulder as a response. Obviously, she couldn’t let that go, so she leaned over and shoved Ren-senpai back, and the two of them laughed like they always do.

When their laughter finally died down, Kasumi finally continued where she had left off. “Y’know, I’ve heard my coach praising me. She says, ‘Kasumi’s greatest weapon has always been her boldness.’” She could feel the anxiety welling up in her as she was speaking, but she couldn’t stop there. She had to get it out. “And honestly, that used to be true. I was totally fearless, confident…gymnastics was a fun challenge. But..,” she paused for a moment and bit her lip. “But ever since I started high school, I’ve been in a slump. I got taller, for one, and there were some other…complications.” 

Kasumi grit her teeth and balled up her hands into fists in her lap. “I can’t move how I want anymore. Like it’s not even my own body.” _Here comes the hardest part…the admission. The truth._ “I…I kind of fell into a depression. It got pretty bad…sometimes it still is.” She winced, closed her eyes, grit her teeth, and waited for the inevitable ‘cheer up’, or ‘you’ll be okay’, or even the dreaded ‘you’re so strong’, or anything to that effect.

She never heard it.

When Kasumi finally peeked her eyes open and turned to look at Ren-senpai after she didn’t receive a reply, he already had his gaze on her. His eyes were full of empathy and understanding, but the way his lips were curved hinted at a layer of underlying bitterness.

“You too, huh?”

Those three sad words stole Kasumi’s breath away and put an ache of empathy in her heart. Three words were all it took for her to realize that they weren’t too different from each other and that there was a lot more to Senpai than just being angry, rude, or funny. It’s hard for her to remember, sometimes, that other people are just as complex and varied as she is.

Kasumi didn’t make a sound, though, or even breathed for that matter, because Senpai actually opened up. She didn’t want to spook him into stopping.

Senpai looked her over for a moment, then let out a sigh and ran a hand down his face. When his hand-finished its route down his face, he fixed his gaze on her again. “Would you like to hear a story, Kasumi?”

She didn’t know what else to say or how to elaborate so, naturally, Kasumi said the first thing that came to mind.

“Yes.”

That bit of blunt honesty seemed to have worked, if the small smile that played at Senpai’s lips was any indication.

_So Senpai told a short story. A story about a teenager who simply wanted to do the right thing his way. How, one night, that teenager came across a drunk man accosting a woman, spewing vile words that even the teenager, with his rude mouth and colorful language, wouldn’t dare utter. And so that teenager decided this man had had enough to drink and needed to step back, and placed his hand on the man’s shoulder. Just to pull the drunk away and talk him down a bit._

_The drunk threw the teen’s hand off of his shoulder, slurred a few words, and turned to the teen. Unfortunately for the man, he was drunk enough to literally trip over his own feet, and went tumbling to the ground, smacking his face on the pavement._

_The teen laughed, because of course he did. The situation was funny, and it wasn’t often you saw someone trip over themself._

_But things took a turn for the worse when the drunk said he would sue. The teen was baffled at the very idea, but curious to see how the man would accomplish it._

“Well...you know what they say about cats and curiosity, right? Although, that isn’t even the whole phrase, it’s actually ‘curiosity killed the cat, and satisfaction brought it back.’ Seems like people broke up the saying just to try and make a point about sticking to conformity, which I think—.”

“Senpai? The story?”

“Huh? Oh, right, right.”

_The drunk told the woman he had harassed to pin the blame of assault on the teenager._

_And when the police finally came over to check on the disturbance, she did exactly that. For whatever reason, likely as a ‘just in case’ measure, the drunk told the police to keep his name out of the report. Whoever he was, he had pull with the police department, because they obeyed._

_So the teen, in utter shock, was arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, and summarily tried and sentenced._

Senpai was quiet for a few seconds after he finished the story until he finally spoke up. “And...well, you can guess the rest.” 

“So..,” Kasumi said with some trepidation in her voice. “That’s how you got a record? Not for carrying a knife or multiple knives or even slashing a police officer’s tires—.” She saw him wince and felt the corner of her mouth twitch upward for a moment. “But because some...drunk jerk pinned a false charge on you?”

“Yup.” Senpai had his gaze on the river in front of them when she glanced at him. “And then developed a pretty bad case of depression because of juvenile detention...well…” He said it all with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “That, among other things.” Senpai didn’t elaborate further.

“But...but that’s—!” She couldn’t find the right words to describe her outrage at the situation. At the burden placed upon Senpai for little reason other than to soothe some drunk jerk’s ego. “He had no right to do that to you! None of them did!”

Senpai turned his gaze to Kasumi and simply shrugged his shoulders. “Eh. It’s not all bad.”

Her eyes widened in disbelief. With a small bit of hesitation, Kasumi leaned towards Senpai, placed her hand on his arm, and hoped he understood how confused she was about this. “How? How is not ‘all bad’, Senpai? How could you just...brush all that off?”

“Trust me, I’m not just brushing it off.” It was then that she caught sight of the smug smirk on Senpai’s face and the mirth dancing in his eyes, as though he were saying ‘Gotcha’ without moving his lips. “But yeah. Not that bad,” he started as he turned to look at the river, that smirk still on his face as Kasumi eyed him suspiciously. “Got to move out of my hometown. Got to see the city. Meet a bunch of new people. Made some new friends.” His smirk turned into a genuine smile when he turned to look at her. “Met you.”

Kasumi felt her cheeks flare with a light heat, and she cleared her throat and coughed into her fist. “S-Senpai, I don’t know if y-you’re flirting with me or not, but I meant what I said before, that I’m not—.”

He held his hand up to stop her. “I know, I know. Neither of us are looking for a relationship and that hasn’t changed. But..,” he reached up and, like before, caught a lock of his raven hair in his hand and toyed with it. “I’m uh...I-I’m glad I met you, Kasumi. Seriously. I’m glad you’re my friend.” 

_He’s…he’s glad I’m his friend..._

A warmth that felt like sunshine blossomed in Kasumi’s chest and a wide smile bloomed on her face. “I’m glad you’re my friend too, Ren-senpai! And thank you for being so understanding.” She looked down at her lap then out to the river as a thought came to mind. “You know, when you helped me in Shibuya, something occurred to me…” 

Kasumi waited a moment to gather her thoughts before she continued. “I saw how fearless you are, how confident you can be…” The corner of her lip twitched. “In spite of your rudeness—.” “Hey!” The twitch in her lip became a smirk and she fought the laugh that threatened to bubble out of her throat. “I had a feeling you were the right one to help me.” The smirk became a wide, beaming smile. “And with how kind and considerate you are, I know I made the right choice.” She reached over and gently placed her hand on Ren-senpai’s shoulder, and he laid his hand atop hers in response. “If I stick with you, Ren-senpai, I think I can learn how to be confident again.”

Ren-senpai gently patted her hand with a soft smile, and Kasumi let her hand fall from his shoulder as he did the same.

“Then follow my lead, Kasumi.” His smile became a joking grin. “Although that’s probably a bad idea, all things considered.”

She responded to his grin with a giggle and a grin of her own. “Oh don’t worry, Senpai, I’ve already made my peace with this particular bit of poor decision-making a long time ago.”

A boisterous laugh left Ren-senpai’s lips at that, and Kasumi joined him in his laughter, without regard to how loud they were to the people passing by.

As they wound down from their laughter, she pulled out her phone and prayed it would actually turn on this time. The screen flickered on, and Kasumi let out a sigh of relief...which quickly became a panicked gasp as she leapt to her feet.

“Ack! My alarm didn’t go off! Darn busted phone...” She gave Ren-senpai a look of apology as she quickly stuffed the phone back into her pocket. “Sorry, Senpai, I have to get going. I have a meeting with my coach!”

“Well, don’t let me keep you, Kasumi,” he replied as he snatched his duffel bag off the ground and stood up.

Kasumi smiled brightly and made the attempt to bow to Ren-senpai, only to notice him as he reached over to tap her on the forehead. She parried what she had just realized was a feint with her arm, and felt his other hand tap her on the forehead. She let out a whine of frustration, pouted up at him, and rubbed the spot he tapped on her forehead. “Senpaiii...”

His only response was a self-satisfied smirk and a cocky “Gettin’ better, Kasumi,” before he turned from her and left with a backward wave.

With a huff and a shake of her head, Kasumi shrugged her bag onto her shoulder and left as well as she made her way to the gym that she and Coach Hiraguchi frequented.

* * *

It took some time, but Ren finally made it back to LeBlanc after he ran a few errands. But of course, he’d get a call when he has his hands full of grocery bags. Muttering a few choice words, Ren went about the arduous task of setting down his bags without breaking anything and then pulling out his phone to answer. When he saw that it was Kasumi, a small smile crossed his face, and he was sure the grin came through when he answered.“Hey Kasumi.”

“Hello, Ren-senpai! Thank you very much for joining me today.” Seemed to Ren that he wasn’t the only one with a smile on their face, cause he could hear one in hers too. “Are you feeling sore after all that? I imagine not, considering how much you exercise as well.”

He began nodding before realizing she couldn’t actually see him. “Eh. That was about an average to above-average workout.” The smirk wormed its way onto his face before he even realized it. “I’ll be sure to stretch before bed too, since I know you were gonna mention that.” 

She stumbled a bit with her words at that. “E-Eh? Am I that obvious, Senpai?”

“Yup,” was his beautifully immaculate response.

“You’re incorrigible, Senpai.”

“Ah, you know I’m just teasing you.”

Kasumi let out a small giggle from her end. “Yes, I know Senpai. And I’m grateful that you accepted my request. I was so relieved, I suddenly got really hungry…and then my stomach wouldn’t stop growling during my meeting.”

Ren couldn’t stop the flash of concern from appearing on his face, even if she couldn’t see it. It certainly appeared in his voice, though. “You did eat eventually, right? You have to recoup the lost energy, or else you’ll run yourself into the ground.”

“Oh yes, don’t worry, Senpai. I made dinner when I got home, so I’m all full now.”

“Very good. Don’t need you becoming a skeleton, I’ve seen the history of Japan’s gymnasts before.” Ren suppressed a shudder. “Nasty stuff.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I have my excessive diet, then! Usually, that kind of thing makes most people feel sick, but it seems to have an opposite effect on me.” Kasumi’s cheery attitude was infectious, he gave her that. “Since you’re helping me out, I’ll do whatever it takes to maintain my shape!”

The concern crept back into Ren’s voice again. “Just make sure you don’t hurt yourself in the process, Kasumi.”

“I’ll be sure, don’t worry, Senpai,” Kasumi said in an attempt to placate him. “I hope you can help me next time! I’ll reach out again soon. I’ll talk to you again soon!”

“Talk to you soon, Kasumi.” Ren hung up and put the phone away, then made sure he was able to actually bring in the groceries before he picked them up.

. . . . .

Ren had finished putting away the groceries into his minifridge and just told Morgana to take a stroll, because Ren needed to be alone for a little while. He was currently sitting in his bed, arms on his knees. He took a look at his forearms, covered in compression sleeves, and placed his hand over the other’s forearm. “You’re fine, Ren,” he whispered to himself. “You have friends now…people who care about you.”

That, apparently, did not matter to the voices. 

_“Do you even know what you’ve done?”_

His hand squeezed his arm as the memories of voices grew louder. “Y-You’re okay. You have M-Morgana, yo—.”

_“Scum.”_

_“Worthless boy.”_

_“I knew being friends with you was a mistake.”_

“You ha-have Ryuji,” he said, a bit louder, and Ren’s grip only grew tighter as his body shuddered. “A-and Ann, and Yusuk—.”

_“Get away from me!”_

_“All he does is think about himself, don’t talk to him.”_

_“You’re nothing but a pain in the ass, get out of my face.”_

Ren’s breath came in short, shaky gasps. His grip was so tight on his forearm that it ached, but he could barely feel it.

_“I heard he’s a murderer, how long do you think it’ll take for him to kill someone?”_

“Stop…” He felt cold.

_“Maybe we should teach him a lesson.”_

“No more...” There was a pain in his chest.

_“Or perhaps, you really are just the delinquent everyone makes you out to be?”_

“Please…” His heart ached and his eyes burned.

_“You are not just a delinquent, Senpai. You’re my friend.”_

He let out a gasp, the memory of Kasumi greeting him playing through Ren’s mind, and in spite of how he felt, a trembling smile found its way onto his face. He shakily reached into his pockets and pulled out a cigarette and his lighter, and after a few clicks, he went to light the cigarette and put it to his—.

_“Love you? Who could ever love someone like you?”_

Ren choked, his grip fell loose, and the cigarette and lighter clattered to the floor.

He felt the heat build up in his eyes, and his vision went blurry.

No matter how many friends he made, or how much good he tried to do, Ren just couldn’t seem to escape the poison _she_ whispered into his ear, the way the words wormed their way through his mind.

With his thoughts in tatters and her poison in his heart, Ren Amamiya held his head in his hands and wept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof.
> 
> Guess I can only finish chapters in 6 week intervals (ch 6 doesn't count).
> 
> Also, in case you were wondering what tricks Ren was doing with the cards, [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPiAz6BvEw8) you go.
> 
> In any case, I'd like to shout out a few people: 
> 
> my friend [Blue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redcobalt/pseuds/bluediamon) for beta'ing this chapter cause the text flows a lot better now because of her.  
> [Dev0ted](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dev0ted/pseuds/Dev0ted) for putting up with my shit the past 6 weeks.  
> And [Kuro](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xKuroKoalax/pseuds/xKuroKoalax) because [PEOPLE PLEASER](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24064123)


End file.
